Bound (Legacy Series Book 4) Read online

  Something gave a great tug to the back of my shirt and I opened my eyes. Adia and I remained seated beside the fire but the earth around us changed as if some sort of celestial being terraformed the land around us. Snow faded to grass, night to twilight, and the ground beneath us peaked, lifting us to a mountainside cliff. I held my breath as the world reshaped around us. We hadn't really moved, my mate bonds remained as close as they were prior. This is a hallucination. Stay in it. Adia opened her eyes, glancing around us momentarily.

  "Where are we?" she asked.

  Owls hooted along with the calls of crickets and tree frogs. I let go of her hands to feel the earth beneath us. Crumbling stones caught my fingertips and recognized the surface of the stone.

  "The top of the mountain a few miles from the cabin. Higher up than I usually go," I paused, taking in the scents around me. "In the spring."

  "This is a good place." Adia met my gaze again. "What do you feel?"

  "Safe. I like this place." Light peeked out from the mountains and trees behind Adia as the sunrise crept up. Not only had the place melded but the time as well.

  "Why are we here?"

  "To go back to when I was with Ileana." Clarity washed over me as I identified the purpose for the dream-state. "Expose her weakness."

  "You are in Arizona." Adia's words weren't a statement but a direction. Our setting remained the same but the tension hit my chest like a tire iron. I gripped my shirt as my vision swirled, Adia grabbed my hands and pulled me back into position. "Go backward."

  I'm trying to carve a rock with a stick. What an idiot. My mother is here.

  "Farther."

  Running. All I do is run.

  "Inside."

  Darkness.

  "Please, don't shut the door." Panic rose in my chest again but the cool breeze that brushed the hair off my face reminded me that we remained outside. "There's nothing."

  "Stay in the nothing."

  "I can't see." I blinked a dozen times but my vision didn't clear, I remained as blind as I was locked in Ileana's house.

  "You can hear."

  "Yes…" I nodded.

  "And smell, speak, feel."

  Echoes of the vampires flooded my consciousness, of the sound of the whip bearing down on my back. No pain. A trickle of blood tickling my side.

  "What is missing? Out of place?" Adia's voice pulled me forward like a blue beacon of light burning at the end of a tunnel.

  "Missing…" I repeated. "Windows."

  "Uh huh, you know that already. Sun-sensitive." Adia paused and the ball of light dimmed. "What else?"

  What was missing? Everything, my mates, my pack. My phone, job, sanity sometimes. Ileana's greatest weakness, the one thing that would kill her wasn't any clearer to me now than it was while I was actually locked in that room. If it hadn't been for her imbecile nest of wannabe made-for-TV leeches, I'd still be there. That young leech was easier to kill than an infantry of tin soldiers. She never even bothered to come after me. And the door…

  "I used a credit card to open the door."

  "What's missing about that?"

  "She put me in a room that unlocked so easily. And when I got out, she never came after me."

  "Why not?"

  "I don't know."

  "Think, feel, Shawnee," Adia's directive dragged me backward as if a vacuum sucked me out of the hall and into the dark room again.

  I rattled the door handle, felt it with my hands. The credit card trick was the oldest thing ever. The house is somewhat older, that's not surprising. I walked out of there like it was nothing, though. That's different. No one stopped me, not even Alder.

  Feel.

  No vampires, it was daytime but the house was light tight. I did something. I changed the game.

  "She didn't expect me to get out," I said. "I blindsided her."

  "You are Ileana."

  Three simple words sent me into a nauseating spiral. Splashes of red flooded my field of vision and someone screamed. Not out of fear. No. It was more credulous, like a child's tantrum. She didn't think I could do it, or would do it. My fingers clenched around Adia as if the bone of her wrist was the broken leg of the stool.

  "Staking. I killed that leech and changed the game. She felt it. He was her fledgling." My eyes shot open. "That's what did it. She didn't come after me because she knew I wasn't afraid to try to kill them in the most obvious way. But there's no way I could kill an ancient." Adia's image appeared in front of me again, the darkness gone as quickly as it had arrived.

  "No, Shawnee could not. In that moment, you became no longer a pawn."

  "She knew that my pack would know what I'd done and how she didn't come after me because she was too busy having a fit. That's her weakness, isn't it?" My heart pounded in my chest as the haze of the illusion around us began to fade. "She couldn't come after me because I escaped in the daytime, by the time she realized it anyway." I took a deep breath. "Daylight won't kill her but it weakens her. She… underestimated me."

  "Even ancients mess up. Good thing you don't." Adia smiled.

  "Oh, I've messed up plenty." I let go of Adia's hands and the cabin reappeared the moment the ground surrounding us returned to snow. "We used a wooden arrow on Izzy. On my order." My mouth hung open a bit. "She can feel the staking of her children because it's her weakness." Adia caught my gaze. "Right?"

  "Right," she said, continuing to smile as if we had solved every single problem the world ever experienced. "Dia told you that you knew."

  "We have our first answer."

  "Now all that's to be done is to get close enough."

  "That's not going to be difficult." I sighed. "Not difficult at all."

  Chapter Nineteen

  I helped Adia clean up and poured the remaining sage into the fire. My heart continued to thunder, I couldn't wait to share what I learned with the pack.

  "How Shawnee feels now?" Adia asked as she rolled up the skins.

  "Good. Strong." The question had me focused inward on the bonds and my stomach. "Hungry." And something else that I wasn't going to admit to Adia no matter how old her spirit was.

  "Go inside then. It's late." Adia nodded toward the house at the same moment my mother opened the front door to join us by the fire. She kissed my cheek and sent me on my way inside.

  I entered the kitchen and Caden's arm shot into the air, his back to the front door. It took me a second to realize he held out a biscuit meant for me. I snatched it from his hand and took a gaping bite. Xany giggled and went about icing a chocolate cake. I wondered if she'd been baking to pass the time or the worry.

  "What'd you find out, NeeNee?" Xany asked as I added a scoop of chocolate icing to the biscuit.

  "Staking is her weakness. She feels it when other vampires she's made get staked," I answered after swallowing down my food. Mal wasn't in the room but Vanessa dozed on the sofa. "She didn't come after me because she was pissed off or distracted that I staked that fledgling leech."

  "See? Told you the crossbow was the key. Let's go get it ready, TB." Xany set the cake knife down.

  "We're going to need a faster crossbow to take out an ancient, precious." Caden nodded to me as if he approved of both the information and me in general. I waved to the two of them and let them sort out their crossbow issues while I made my way to the sofa. I kissed Vanessa on the cheek and pulled a blanket over her. She didn't stir.

  Mal was in his room digging through the rollout trunk from under his bed. His damp hair dangled loosely over his bare shoulders.

  "Cedar is the best kind of wood for stakes," he said, and I knew that I must've sent him some of my vision. He seemed to get more images from me than Vanessa did.

  "Have you been put in charge of carving them?" I closed the door behind me and he looked up.

  "Nah, I've got some already." A grin melted over his lips. "What are you doing?"

  "Nothing," I said, stripping off my shirt. "What are you doing?"

  "Nothing." He stood up and used his foot
to roll the trunk back under the bed.

  "Good." As soon as the space between us cleared, I closed the distance and caught him in a kiss. He gripped my hips, pulling me to him. Our mate bond thrashed inside me, demanding sustenance in a way it hadn't in a long time. His skin, hot and firm against mine, set alight the smoldering embers of my core. Trickles of desire raced up my middle, settling in my mouth. I wanted him, to taste and touch and smell. I tugged him toward the bed.

  "Hmm… What exactly happened in that sacred circle?" he teased as my legs hit the bed. He reached behind me and unhooked my bra, brushing it off my arms where it joined my shirt on the floor.

  "No idea," I said as his lips pressed mine.

  Mal dropped me down on the bed, his body above mine. His tongue slipped between my lips as he gripped the waist of my jeans. The button popped open and he ended our kiss, moving his way down my body, licking and nipping my neck, ending with soft spirals around my nipple. I gasped, gripping a handful of his hair.

  I kicked off my boots as Mal yanked my pants off and tossed them aside. His clothes disappeared as the full heat of him pressed against me, his shaft against my thigh. Teeth grazed my shoulder as he shoved his hand eagerly down my panties, cupping my heat with a possession that rattled our mate bond. I ached for him as his fingers slipped over my folds. He explored me, probing and stroking in a manner that had me wanting more. His mouth swallowed mine, drowning me in an impassioned kiss while he rubbed himself against me. Our connection told me that he was torn between touching me and tearing away my clothes to thrust himself inside.

  Without warning, he gripped my wrist and pressed my hand between us until my fingers wrapped around him. He grunted as his lips left mine and nibbled their way to my shoulder. He rocked himself in my hand, his fingers thrust in me at the same time. I gasped. We had never done things this way before. My hand trembled as I stroked him, the pressure of his bite on my shoulder told me I was doing something right. I brushed my thumb over the tip of him. He groaned and withdrew from my hand before ripping my panties away in a fevered swipe.

  He mounted me, nudging my thighs apart with his knee, and thrust the full-hardened length into me. Pleasure-filled waves rippled over my body, consuming me and flooding the link between us. I cried out as he lifted my hips to meet his, I wanted nothing more than to drown in him, in us. A growl rose from deep inside of him as we rode the pleasure together, my nails digging into his hips as I held on to him.

  In the moment when I thought I would lose myself to him, the bedroom door opened, sending a stream of bright light across the bed. Mal paused to look over his shoulder and I nearly cried. No, not now, not again. Shadowed in the doorway stood Vanessa. Her presence set off a sharp uprising in our mate bond, slamming her verdant green into Mal's ginger red. I sucked in my breath as my body responded to their dual presence, as if growing tired of waiting for my brain to catch up. Mal flexed inside of me as he drew his gaze from Vanessa back to me.

  Want. Both.

  My body demanded my mates, both of them, right now. I held my hand out to her and I felt Mal tense above me as we both awaited Vanessa's response. The door closed and for a moment, I couldn't tell where she was until her hand gripped mine. Mal remained inside of me as Vanessa joined us on the bed, neither of them took the initiative in moving first. I grabbed Vanessa by her sweater and pulled her down to kiss me at the same time that I wrapped my legs around his waist, urging him to continue. He didn't hesitate and continued moving in and out of me, except now Vanessa's hair cascaded over my torso. She tasted like sweet, decadent strawberries. I moaned against her lips as we kissed and struggled to free her from her clothes. She pulled back as her shirt came off, watching me with disbelief woven through her expression.

  Middle. Me.

  As if he could hear my thoughts, Mal withdrew from me, growling the whole time, and put me on all fours. No one spoke, we didn't need to, our bodies said all that was necessary. I moved but before I could position myself over Vanessa, he plunged into me, his motion heated and starved for release. Vanessa seemed eager since her skirt disappeared before I could tug it down over her hips. I gripped her legs and pulled her to me. I wanted nothing more than for them to consume me, and me, them.

  Every inch of her trembled, her breath as tenuous as mine. I pressed her to lie back and dropped down between her thighs, devouring her as I slipped two fingers inside her saturated heat. Her scent fueled a hunger that all but took over me. I mimicked Mal's thrusting while flicking my tongue over her nub. She cried out and, at that moment, the bonds inside me seemed to scream, mingling together in what only magnified ecstasy as it pulsed through us. I indulged in my mates, lost in a sea of pleasure. And I never wanted it to stop. Mal growled. Vanessa cried out my name. Her fingers gripped my hair and Mal slammed into me harder, faster. He drove me over the edge and I brought Vanessa with us. I shuddered as my orgasm raged. Vanessa pressed up to me, her explosion meeting Mal's and sending our connection into a fury. It lasted forever, the three of us trapped in a whirlwind of rapture. Our bodies both celebrated the release and feared its departure.

  I collapsed down beside Vanessa, my knees weak and trembling from the intensity of it all. She wrapped her arms around me as Mal eased down on top of us. I lay there in a breathless heap, tucked between my mates, in a space I never wanted to leave.

  ***

  I awoke to the morning sunlight glaring off a fresh coating of snow. Golden rays illuminated Mal's room. He remained asleep behind me, his arm draped over my hip as I held Vanessa in front of me in similar fashion. Tucked between them, I never felt more at ease. At peace with my mates and myself. It was a place of invulnerability, and happiness.

  Vanessa stirred in front of me, turning over to face me as the memory of last night flooded my senses. Heat rushed my cheeks and I bit my lip. She peeked her eyes open and soft purrs filled the space between us. I smiled warmly at her and her cheeks tinged pink. She glanced toward the door then back to me, her brows flicking upward once. I nodded. She kissed my nose and broke away, leaving me half-cold. I tucked myself closer to Mal and he squeezed me while he slept.

  I watched Vanessa dress, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, dancing only a few inches above her waist. I didn't want her to go. It wasn't fair that she had to leave first. I turned over and kissed Mal's shoulder, then slid from his grip to dress beside my mate. I pulled on one of Mal's shirts and Vanessa smirked at me as she slipped from the bedroom. Her movements were rather practiced. This wasn't her first, well, whatever this was, it wasn't her first. I followed her into the hall then headed straight for the shower.

  By the time I emerged, Mal was in the main room adding wood to the hearth and Vanessa sat alone at the kitchen table. None of us spoke or looked at one another. What had I done? Had I been selfish to bring us together? I leaned against the countertop as I looked between them. I had to do something, anything to cut the tension in the room before someone else did.

  "Are you hungry?" I asked, directing my question to the room rather than anyone in particular. Vanessa nodded and so did Mal, but still they didn't speak. "I'll fix something." Fix something?! That's the worst idea ever. Me. In Xany's kitchen. I shook my head at myself and shuffled through the refrigerator. Okay, eggs. I can do eggs. And bacon, yeah. This will do. I removed the ingredients and began preparing breakfast for pretty much the first time in my life. At least a breakfast that required a frying pan. I'd watched my mother and Xany cook often enough to figure it out.

  Mal's fire whooshed to life in the hearth though he continued to poke at it. I fried up the eggs and bacon.

  "What is that god awful smell?" Xany came stomping out of her bedroom only to come to a grinding halt. "Whoa. What did you guys do?"

  "Making breakfast. Do you want some?" Even the words coming out of my mouth sounded unnatural. But I had to answer, didn't I? Mal and Vanessa sure weren't going to.

  "This ain't got a thing to do with breakfast." Xany started circling around each of us like a predator
ready for attack.

  "Stop it, Xany. Come over and sit or something—Shit." I yanked the burning bacon out of the skillet.

  "This one is pleased as punch," Xany commented as she prowled from Vanessa to Mal. "But this one is confused but also tickled pink." Mal snarled as she walked away from him.

  "He's going to eat you and I'm not going to stop him this time." I tossed both of the pans in the sink, food included. Vanessa pouted at me. "Sorry, baby, I burned everything. It's Xany's fault."

  "Not my fault you're trying to cover things up with cooking." Xany plopped down in one of the kitchen chairs.

  "I'm not. They were hungry."

  "Yes you are and that's true but it ain't for food." Xany snickered. "That's for sure." She pulled her legs up and sat cross-legged in the chair. "So give me all the juicy details."

  "Where's Caden?" I asked. Xany was not easy to distract. It's my own fault for not even considering the fact that she would be the first to burst our awkwardness. I caught Vanessa looking me up and down. When I walked by, she tugged me into her lap.

  "He said I could handle this one since it was my kitchen." Xany grinned.

  "He's not with Hank talking about what we learned of Ileana?"

  "Not gonna work this time, NeeNee, so spill."

  "Sorry, can't. I have a patient at nine. And…" I glanced at the clock. "It's nine now."

  "At the hospital?" Vanessa finally spoke.

  "No, baby, just in the clinic." I rubbed her arm as she tensed a bit.

  "Okay, you wanna play it that way." Xany looked over her shoulder. "Hey Nessa." Vanessa turned her attention to Xany as I stood. "I'll make you a salmon omelet if you tell me." Xany wagged her brows at Vanessa. Vanessa grinned, her smile almost wicked.

  "She's a cat, Xee. She loves her secrets just as much as salmon." I laughed and made my way over to Mal. "I need your help with something in the clinic." He nodded a bit more eagerly than usual and stood up to join me.