Dakotah's Reading

CHAPTER 3

“Who are you?” Dakotah asked, knives held in front of her, refusing to give in to the wolf’s joy at being reunited with the male from the previous night—even if he was in his human form.

“I am Domino Santori.” An eyebrow lifted as his gaze dropped to the knives in her hands then upward, lingering on her breasts and making her nipples tighten and her cunt pulse. “Surely you don’t need those. Not after we enjoyed each other’s company last night.”

Dakotah hesitated for a moment then closed the knives and returned them to her pockets before using her right hand to explore the extent of her injuries on the back of her left arm and shoulder, the touch sending pain rushing through her and making her gasp, her fingers coming away slick with blood.

Rage filled Domino at the sight of her bloody hand. A ferociousness that was beyond anything he’d ever experienced.

In the blink of an eye he was at her side, swamping her with the pheromones of his kind so that he could remove her jacket and shirt without the necessity of physically subduing her. She was mentally strong, but he was stronger, and he had an ally in her wolf.

Domino growled at the sight of her injury, snarled and cursed himself for not arriving soon enough to destroy both of the men who’d been pursuing her. What had she been thinking to allow the Believers to catch her? Why hadn’t she changed into her other form if she wanted them dead?

He ran his tongue along the deep crevice of the knife wound, healing her even as her blood coated his tongue and fanned the flames of The Hunger. The Heat. And this time it was his wolf who worked against him, who joined forces with the alien inclinations of his ancestors so that Domino carried Dakotah deeper into the woods, away from the corpses of their enemy.

He’d had no intention of taking Dakotah again, either as wolf or man, but now Domino finished what he’d begun, stripped her of her remaining clothing before shedding his own, tossing it to the ground to form a rough shield against damp leaves and cold earth. The Heat was a fever in his blood. A pulsing, raging inferno in his cock. Her name the only one in his thoughts, her scent, the feel of her flesh against his the only things that mattered.

He allowed her to surface from the pheromones in the second before his body covered hers, his lips taking hers, his tongue thrusting against her, their skin so hot that steam rose around them.

Desire swamped Dakotah. Primitive. Familiar. Nature’s celebration of life over death. Victory.

She’d experienced it each time she’d succeeding in killing one of the werewolves Victor Hale had sent after her—though until this instant she’d never given in to the heady need to mate, to rejoice in a wild thrashing of male joined to female. A tumultuous rutting that had nothing to do with love and everything to do with the continuation of the species, with survival.

Dakotah didn’t hesitate, didn’t question. She wrapped her legs around Domino’s waist and welcomed him into her body. A deep moan vibrating in her throat when his thick cock stretched her, filled her, burned her from the inside out.

His hips pistoned hard, fast, pummeling in and out of her channel as though he wanted to hammer into her most private, untouched parts. His growls of pleasure and satisfaction feeding the frenzy inside her, driving her to take everything he had to offer.

He held her wrists to the ground and she allowed it, something she’d never done before. Where usually restraint triggered a savage need to escape, an almost mindless need to strike out and kill if necessary, it was different with Domino.

He had killed for her. His wolf had already coupled with hers.

Dakotah tightened her legs as orgasm neared, she bucked and writhed, fought for release, and he responded by giving her more of his weight, by thrusting harder, deeper than a human male was capable of doing, slamming against her cervix in a way that blurred the border between pain and pleasure, blended them so that there was no clear point where one ended and the other began.

A red haze filled Domino’s mind, a hunger for more than sex, more than blood. But he fought off the programming of his alien cells, determined to fuck her throughout the night as he’d done in his wolf form and then walk away from her in the morning.

He wanted no mate. Needed no mate, despite the way his body craved her, despite the treacherous images going through his mind, the wish that she had fangs in her human form so she could sink them into him.

His gums ached as he kept his canines from descending, from plunging into Dakotah’s soft neck in order to gorge on her as he fucked her. She was temptation beyond any he could have imagined. A wolf even in her human skin. A strong, wild creature that would never be completely tamed.

He growled as her legs tightened around his waist, responded by thrusting harder, deeper, her sheath a tight fist around his cock, resisting him even as it welcomed him. Causing the wolf he carried in his cells to rut furiously. To howl in frustration that its seed wasn’t yet viable as orgasm roared through Domino’s cock in a lava-hot rush to fill Dakotah.

Neither of them moved in the aftermath of release. Instead they remained coupled for long moments, panting, skin slick with sweat, hearts racing in chests pressed tightly together.

Dakotah was the first to stir, the instincts that had kept her alive for so long fighting to the surface, fighting to suppress the wolf, which had escaped its cage and was still shivering with joy at being reunited with the male it thought of as its mate.

Domino might have helped her this night, but she’d learned the hard way that the only person she could count on was herself. She needed to drag the bodies into the woods and be on her way. If she was lucky, she’d be long gone before the corpses were discovered.

She unhitched her legs from around Domino’s waist, pulling her wrist from his grip and pressing her hand to his shoulder, urging him to roll off her. He complied with a grunt, disbelief filling him when she stood, pulling what clothing belonged to her out from under him as she did so.

He’d never had a woman rise from his bed with the intention of leaving unless he’d commanded her to do so. That this one thought she could escape him…

The same savage possessiveness he’d experienced before in her presence brought him to his feet, had him reaching for her, stalking her when she backed away from him. His cock hard and jutting out from his body in a bold display of intention.

A small thrill danced along Dakotah’s spine at his show of dominance. At the desire she saw in his face and the way his penis was engorged and leaking, his balls heavy and full underneath it.

Wolf or man, he was a magnificent specimen of masculinity. An incredible example of a male in his prime.

He trigged memories from her past. Dreams and fantasies she’d once held as possibilities. Until she’d learned differently. Until those dreams and fantasies had become too painful a contrast to her reality. To what her life had become. A horror-show where only the strongest and the luckiest emerged alive. Where few emerged unbroken.

Only the flip of a coin had put her under dominatrix supervision and training. Had saved her from repeated rape, from becoming a cheap disposable commodity to the man her self-righteous grandmother and worthless father had turned her over to in order to wipe out her father’s debt. If Victor Hale hadn’t murdered them in retaliation for Dakotah killing his son, she might have returned one day to kill them herself.

A low growl sounded in her throat, threatening even to her own ears, and she forced her thoughts away from the past and back to the man who was stalking her, who’d tensed at the warning he heard, perhaps understanding there were places inside her so dark and full of fury that it would be a fight to the death if he stumbled into them.

“I want the night with you,” Domino said, his voice stroking over her like a wolf’s tongue. “Then I’ll see to the bodies while you go on your way.”

“Why?”

“A test of will.” He smiled, a flash of white teeth, of mocking humor that intrigued her. “And because I don’t believe in tarot readings given by meddling old fortune-tellers.” He moved closer, the smile widening, his scent swirling around Dakotah along with his heat. “What about you? Do you believe?”

She thought about the reading Helki had forced on her. About The Emperor.

The time will come when you will face the enemy who wants you dead, but you will not do so alone. Another change awaits you. This time at the hands of a man unlike any you have known before. A man who wants your life, not your death.

And then her thoughts flashed to the day Helki had insisted on giving Sarael a reading. The day Matteo Cabrelli had come to claim her friend.

“I can feel the truth in them,” Sarael had said, looking down at the three cards representing her past, her present and her future.

“You can change that truth,” Dakotah had claimed, reaching over, flipping the cards so they lay facedown.

The lessons of Dakotah’s past urged her to turn away from Domino and leave now. The wolf told her to stay.

She studied Domino for a long moment, wondering if it was only because their wolves had mated that she craved his touch, had allowed him to pin her down and take her roughly when she might have seriously injured or killed another man for trying it. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter.

In the end it was her secret heart, the place that still harbored forgotten dreams of happy-ever-after that held her in place. It was the knowledge that she couldn’t run forever and that ultimately Victor Hale’s wolves would find her and she would die in a savage fight, refusing to be hauled back to Atlantic City alive.

Why shouldn’t she take what rare pleasure she could find that didn’t involve her own hands and fingers or cheap toy substitutes? She couldn’t afford to lose the entire night, but she would fuck him again and then walk away.

Dakotah shrugged. “I don’t care what the tarot cards say. Once more and then I’m out of here. Take it or leave it.”

Domino’s nostrils flared as fire burned though his veins. The Heat responding to her challenge. Her taunt.

In his world, females were valued, treasured, cared for, loved, protected. But men ruled. Had always ruled. Would always rule, because only they were nearly indestructible.

The natural order of things was woven into the ancient fabric of vampire cells and Dakotah’s words scraped over his nerve endings like sandpaper. Made him want to prove to her how wrong she was, how helpless she was.

It would take no effort at all to swamp her with the pheromones of his kind, to hypnotize her and command that she stay with him until he tired of her. Until he sent her on her way as he had so many other women. As he intended to do to so many more. She was a passing temptation, a fascination brought on by the nearness of The Transformation.

Domino moved into her, his cock straining to brush against her flat belly, to mark her with some of the seed coating its tip. His testicles were already heavy again, full, though until he became fully vampire there was no possibility of impregnating any female, and even afterward, only a kadine could carry his child, and he would not lose his freedom in such a manner.

Raw pleasure coursed through him at her boldness, the way she met his eyes, held her position, only stepping away from him as he crowded into her, physically forcing her to take one step and then another until her back was pressed against the smooth bark of a birch tree.

“I’ll take it. I’ll take you,” he said, answering her challenge, his voice silky and dangerous, The Heat and The Hunger an incessant hum in his veins, feeding the desire to claim and dominate so that Domino knew a moment of real fear, worried that he was about to step into a carefully laid trap.

He shook it off. Told himself that if he intended to stay free of the responsibility of a mate, if he intended to avoid sexually bonding himself to one female, then he might as well strengthen his control and his will with this one, where the risk was reduced. He hadn’t yet been through The Transformation, hadn’t given her his blood. But even so, he wouldn’t gamble by taking her blood, by leaving her unrestrained.

He took the clothing she’d collected but hadn’t yet put on away from her, dropping everything but the bra to the ground before gathering her wrists. She immediately guessed what he was planning, and he read the intention to resist him in her eyes.

Domino had no choice but to swamp her with pheromones. He couldn’t allow her to fight him. Couldn’t allow her to become afraid.

Fear was a heady aphrodisiac to his kind. The lure of it, the ease with which it became an addiction in itself was part of the reason laws existed forbidding full vampires from killing their prey by draining them of life, from feeding on both their blood and their fear.

Only the dhampirs, the soldiers, were allowed to drain their enemies completely—a compensation woven into their design perhaps, for the years of service they gave before they became fully vampire. Or maybe it was because they retained their human shape, their ability to be out in the sun. Because The Hunger didn’t whisper as loudly in them, wasn’t yet as dangerous to them. Still, none of them could afford for their existence to become widely known, especially now, in a world with advanced technology.

If he weren’t so close to The Transformation, so close to being ruled by The Heat and Hunger, then he wouldn’t feel the need to partially restrain her. But her challenge, the wolf’s claim that she was his mate, his own obsession with her—one that had started when he’d arrived in the previous town to hunt the Believers and assist in guarding Sarael—all converged in an emotional flashpoint that put both her life and his freedom at risk.

Domino ruthlessly captured her in obsidian eyes, pushed into her mind and spoke the thoughts he forced on her. “You will allow me to bind you.”

The wolf rose within him and insisted that its mate not be treated as prey, insisted that she know the tethering was for her own protection, and Domino added, “You will not fight the restraints. They are for your own safety.”

And unbidden, he said, “They are for your pleasure.”

He used her bra to lash her unresisting wrists together before lifting her arms over her head and securing them to a limb. Desire rushed through him at the sight of her naked and tethered, a swirl of uneasiness following in its wake at how much it satisfied something inside of him to see her like that when he’d never done it to another female, never thought to do it.

A different hunger rose, the hunger to have her submit to it willingly, and Domino hissed. He stepped back from her, considered freeing Dakotah as the uneasiness gave way to unwelcome realization.

All those created and raised to be kadines were trained to accept being bound and restrained, to expect it, even to welcome it as proof that their mates knew how to keep them safe when The Hunger and Heat became dangerously intense. There were vampires who’d killed their kadines accidentally. Who’d forgotten in their pleasure what lurked in the most primitive parts of their being.

It was a dark ecstasy like no other, to take from a willing partner until their heart stuttered in warning, to know the pleasure they gained from the bite was so great that those they took from would trade their life for it.

It was an unparalleled high to take everything—as their ancestors had once done when they were trying to adapt to the hostile world they found themselves on—when they were experimenting, speeding the evolutionary process by taking the form of their prey, moving into its still warm body and possessing it thoroughly. A possessiveness that had evolved as his species had evolved, had been tweaked and modified until it became focused solely on their mates. And yet at the vampire’s core, they retained parts of what they had originated from, ruthless, alien predators. Beings so feared and deadly that they weren’t welcomed on any world.

Domino hissed again, taking his cock in hand and thinking he should free Dakotah. Send her on her way so he could deal with the bodies of the Believers and then return to his parents’ home to await The Transformation.

Maybe he would have. Maybe he could have. But a breeze swirled into existence, assaulting him with their mingled scents, filling his nostrils with the smell of sex—and he was lost.

“You will not fight the restraints. They are for your safety, your pleasure,” Domino repeated, stepping into her so their bodies touched, releasing her from his hypnotic gaze.

He slowly reduced the pheromones swamping her senses and leaving her dazed and malleable. Felt his own lust intensify when dark eyes met his, when the hunger he saw there was a reflection of the woman’s desire and not enthrallment.

Domino captured her lips and thrust his tongue inside her mouth, taking control of the kiss just as he intended to take control of her body. She fought him, not as prey but as one who considered herself his equal, and he relished the challenge. Anticipated the moment when she would beg for her climax and scream his name when he gave it to her.

His hands slid from her wrists down her immobilized arms, the feel of her sleek muscles and smooth skin a sensory treat. She wasn’t as well endowed as the women he usually took, but as his hands covered her breasts with their tight, dark nipples, he found them more desirable than any he had ever caressed.

The wolf approved of her sleek lines. The man echoed that approval, and Domino’s lips left Dakotah’s in order to trail kisses downward.

She groaned at the first brush of his tongue over her nipple. Jerked at the second. Struggled, arched into him with the third, her voice a husky command as she told him to suck her, to bite her.

He growled in response, wrapped his arms around her, yielded to her demands because it suited him, because suddenly her breasts had become his world and he wanted nothing more than to suckle, to mark her with rough pleasure.

Dakotah threw back her head as hot sensation coursed through her body. She strained against the tether, not remembering the moment when she’d allowed him to tie her but no longer caring. He made her feel alive in a way she’d never felt before.

She wanted him to bite her, to suck. To move lower and do the same to her cunt, her clit.

She wanted to feel his tongue fucking in and out of her body. Wanted to hear his hungry growls and watch his face grow flushed and tense with desire as he gripped his cock to keep from coming.

Dangerous fantasy filled Domino’s mind. Images of allowing his fangs to descend so he could truly suckle at Dakotah’s breast. He ached with the need for it. With the desire to do it. Until the temptation grew so great he had to force himself to release her nipple, to kiss downward, lingering over her smooth belly before rubbing his cheek against the dark brown pubic hair. He buried his nose in it, the wolf demanding that he inhale her scent, take it deep within his lungs, before the man was free to reach his destination. A clit engorged and erect, made for a man’s mouth and tongue, for a woman’s pleasure. Cunt lips flushed, opened, begging for him to kiss and suck them.

He was lost with the first taste. The Heat controlling so that for long moments he fed on her cries of pleasure, his cock pulsing and straining with each hoarse plea for him to fuck her, to let her come. The wolf wallowing in the scent of its mate, working itself into a frenzy that would only be satisfied with mounting her, tying with her, breeding her.

Domino tried to suppress the wolf’s desires. But the more he ate Dakotah, the more she writhed against him, begging as he’d longed to hear her do, her voice low and husky, stroking over him like fur, the more insistent the wolf became. Its desires merged completely with The Heat so that fiery talons scraped at Domino’s resolve to walk away from this female.

It had started out a challenge. A dare. But from the moment Domino’s lips touched her skin, Dakotah was lost in pleasure. A pleasure so intense that all she could do was press against him, arch into him. Demand that he give her more of it.

His lips and tongue had become her world. His scent a heated fragrance that blended perfectly with the night and was more potent than any drug she’d ever been forced to take.

Desire roared through her veins. Not the victory of life over death. Not the wolf’s craving for a mate. But the need of her human heart for contact and intimacy.

Each thrust of his tongue sent a jolt of searing heat to her nipples. Each suck on her clit had her pushing against firm masculine lips in a demand that he take more. That he take all.

A tiny part of her mind argued that she should be fighting the restraints. Fighting to keep herself separate. Fighting for release so she could make her escape. But those thoughts, those urges were lost under his sensual assault, under waves of incredible sensation.

She’d never known anything like it. And probably would never experience it again.

She still couldn’t believe she’d allowed him to bind her wrists. Allowed him to strip away her freedom. But she was beyond caring.

“Now,” she ordered, and without warning, The Hunger flamed to life in Domino and he fought to keep from turning his head and sinking his fangs into her inner thigh. The wild beat of her pulse blending with the sounds of her pleasure to become a chant in Domino’s mind. Mine! Mine! Mine!

The sheer ferocity of it forced him away from the heaven of Dakotah’s slick, wet folds and had him lunging to his feet before the last of his control slipped. He lifted her easily, pressed her back to the smooth bark of the tree and plunged his cock into her channel, rutting on her wildly as she wrapped her legs around him and clung, accepting the wild mating, both of them raising their faces to the moon and bathing in its light in the moment of climax.

It was a dangerous ecstasy. A challenge to fate. To the wolves. To themselves.

And they both retreated when the last tremor subsided. When skin cooled and night sounds closed in on them.

Without a word, Domino freed her and stepped back. Wild emotion and the wolf swirled and seethed inside him as he watched her dress. As he dressed in turn and followed her back to where the bodies of the Believers lay.

“You’ll take care of them?” Dakotah asked, retrieving her shirt and jacket and putting them on, the words barely registering as Domino’s nostrils flared, the scent of so much blood overwhelming him, making his body shudder as The Hunger snarled and raged like a caged beast.

He gasped and went to his knees as pain racked his body. Realized in that instant that The Transformation was on him, raking like talons through his internal organs and across his skin, the alien cells finally free to do what they’d been programmed to do, to destroy anything human within him. “Get out of here,” he growled when Dakotah crouched at his side.

“What’s wrong?”

Obsidian eyes trapped brown ones. The wolf demanding that its mate be sent to safety. “Leave!” Domino hissed before pain drove him the rest of the distance to the ground.