Hunting season

Chapter Six

Will pushed her hair out of her face, but her eyes didn’t open. “You okay, baby?”

She yanked the covers over her head. “Go away!”

Poor thing. He did ride her pretty hard most of the day. She went to get more water from the kitchen; he fucked her up against the fridge. She went to the bathroom; he nailed her on the sink. She walked down the hallway; he fucked her on the hallway floor. And none of that included what he did to her in his bed…again and again and again. He should feel bad…but he didn’t. Not when he felt so damn good. And he wasn’t remotely done with her. Not yet.

Not ever.

“Aren’t you hungry, baby?”

“This is another one of those trick questions, isn’t it?”

He grinned as he fought with her to pull the covers back. He always knew he’d enjoy tusslin’ with Neecy Lawrence. “Don’t be ridiculous.” He snatched the covers out of her hands. “Besides, what else could I mean when I say ‘So, do you like protein in your diet?’ ”

“I thought you were talking about that diet where you only eat meat.”

Laughing, he slipped his arms under her neck and legs, easily lifting her off the bed. “In a way…I was.”

He carried her into his living room where he already had the food laid out on the floor. He even had a reason to use his fireplace. The whole crackling fire thing…that was romantic, right?

He placed her on top of the flannel blanket he’d already put down.

“Chinese food.” She smiled. “Very creative.”

“Can you think of anything better for sustaining bouts of serious sex than take-‐ out Chinese?”

Stretching out, stomach down, she took the chopsticks he offered her. “Good point.”

He stretched out next to her. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I got a little bit of everything.”

“I’m not finicky about food.” She snagged a piece of barbeque pork and popped it into her mouth. “Especially when I’m actually allowed to eat.”

“Don’t give me that look. I gave you time for lunch.”

“Letting me eat soup while you lick me out, is not really conducive to getting in a full meal.”

“But it was chicken noodle. It had everything necessary to get back to sex.”

She shook her head and sipped the red wine he put out.

“I hope the wine’s okay. I’ve got soda and water if you want that instead.”

“Nope. This is fine.”

They ate in silence for a good ten minutes, and Yager really liked that she didn’t feel the need to talk while she was eating. When he ate, he just wanted to eat.

Basic conversation came before and after. Never during.

He also liked that she didn’t seem to mind sitting around his living room naked.

Yeah. He could easily see spending the rest of his life naked with Neecy.

When they’d polished off most of the food, he decided it was time to get a little information out of her. She seemed so relaxed and there was so much about her he wanted to know. For once, she didn’t seem closed off to him, and she was actually letting him be nice to her. “Can I ask you a question?”

Neecy took a bamboo shoot out of his nearly empty bowl. “How did I die, right?”

Yager shook his head. He didn’t need to ask about her death. He already knew.

It was the first question every Raven asked when they brought in a new Crow to the Gathering…“So, bro, how’d this one buy it?

“Actually, I was going to ask about your tattoos.”

“Oh.” She glanced down at the tattoos covering both of her biceps and one on her forearm. They were amazing workmanship and something about them seemed to fit Neecy perfectly. “I got these from an Okinawa Crow. She’s also a tattoo artist and came to the states to visit for a couple of weeks. Didi knew I wanted to cover up my old tats, so she asked the woman to swing by and meet with me. I thought for sure I wouldn’t be able to afford her. I mean, she’s world-‐famous.

But she did these for free.”

“Why?” Yager didn’t know much about tattoos. He went through his life avoiding needles as much as possible. His doctor cringed every time he realized he had to give him a shot for something. Still, Yager knew tattoos could be expensive based on what Mike told him. The better the artist, the more expensive the tat.

Neecy gave a small smile. “She talked to me for hours the first night she was here. When she was about to go back to her hotel, she said she’d do my cover-‐ ups. She’d be back in a couple of days.”

“Just like that?”

“I think she felt sorry for me. And she knew I wanted to get rid of the gang tats.”

“Felt sorry for you or admired you? There is a difference.” He ran his finger down one of her tats, tracing the soaring black crow within the intricate design.

“This isn’t the tat of someone I should feel sorry for. This tat is about power and strength.”

She finished off her wine and shrugged self-‐consciously. “Yeah. I guess. Maybe.”

Quickly, Neecy moved on from the topic of herself. Seemed she didn’t feel too comfortable with that.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Anything.”

She blinked at that, and barreled ahead. “When did Odin come for you?”

“When I was thirteen.”

“Wow. You were young.”

“It’s the standard age for the Ravens.”

“Crows don’t have a standard age.” He knew that. Crows came whenever their deaths came. “So, how did that work?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did Odin come for you? I mean, Skuld waits until you’re on that last breath before she makes an appearance. Then she offers you fruit—although none of us figured out why yet. Anyway, I wondered how Odin handled it.”

Will took his fist and lightly tapped Neecy on her forehead. “Knock. Knock. Mrs.

Yager, we’re Raven elders and we’re here for your son.”

Neecy frowned. “Just like that?”

“Yup. Just like that, and no Odin. I met him by accident three years later. I ran over his foot with one of the Elder’s Ferraris. That’s when I learned drinking and driving…very bad.”

Neecy’s head was down, but her entire body shook from laughter.

“Oh, sure. Laugh. But let me tell ya…for a god, he was awfully asshole-‐y about the whole thing.”

Clearing her throat, Neecy continued with her questions. “And your parents didn’t freak out about any of this?”

“Not at all. I come from a very long line of Vikings. And a few from our line had been called by Odin before.”

“So they just…handed you over? To some strangers?”

“Yup. They were honored.”

“And you?”

“Me?” He shrugged. “I’m good at what I do.”

Neecy nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Me, too.”

They both stared into the fire crackling in his fireplace. Both of them started down these paths so early in life, but he couldn’t say that if anything had been different, their lives would have necessarily been better. He found himself damn grateful to Skuld. If she hadn’t taken Neecy, she wouldn’t be here now. Right where she belonged, as far as Yager was concerned.

Her soft lips brushed against his throat and he closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her mouth on his body. As the day wore on, Neecy became more and more affectionate and he loved every minute of it.

She kissed her way up his neck. Her arm stretched across his shoulders as she breathed into his ear, “Fuck me, Will. You feel so good inside me.”

He melted at her words, leaning down to kiss her. The woman had no idea what she did to him. How much she made him want to chain her to the bed, so that she could never leave him.

She had no idea when he unfurled his wings, but nothing felt as cool as having those wings sweep across her naked back. She pulled out of their kiss, gasping in surprise.

“Oh, my God!” She twisted her body a bit so she could watch the feathers glide along her skin. “That feels amazing.”

“You’ve never done this before?” A mischievous grin spread across his face, “Even with the other Crows?”

Smirking, “You guys have a whole lesbian-‐fantasy thing going on over there at that Mountain Ridge, Mountain Creek, Mountain Cock…whatever ya call it.”

“Just a little one. All those tough women alone…wearing leather. There’s gotta be some wrestling going on that involves oil, right?”

She bumped her shoulder into his. “I find that such a sad, pitiful, all-‐male statement.”

“Even the Warriors of Odin have their sad, pitiful, all-‐male moments.”

She stretched, her back arching as the tip of his wing kept up its steady movement against her flesh. She especially loved when the feathers swept across the scar tissue that hid her own wings. They’d always been kind of sensitive, but this was mind blowing.

Who knew she’d enjoy spending time around Wilhelm Yager? Up to now, she just thought he was another dumb rich guy looking to slum it a bit with the Crows. She’d quickly found out he was anything but dumb and not once the entire day had Yager made her feel different or low class or less than anything else in the world. He actually made her feel…well, kinda special.

Neecy’s body jolted as Will’s feathers slipped between her legs. Her head dropping to rest on her folded arms. “What are you doing?”

“Amusing myself.” His wing stroked her pussy lips. “Mine for twenty-‐four hours. Remember?”

How the hell could she forget? She was already dreading the end of this. But it would end. It’s not like she could live like this forever…right?

“Spread your legs, baby.”

She looked up at his smiling face through her too-‐long tangled bangs. She really needed to get them cut. “Must you call me that?”

“I like calling you that. Now spread ‘em.”

She did and he glided the tip of his wing against her clit, flicking it with a twist of his feathers.

Neecy’s body jerked again. She’d heard about getting a feather tease but this was ridiculous. And delicious. “You have got to be kidding me.” No way would she let him get her off with his wing, but she seemed unable to stop him. It felt too good. He felt too good.

“Nice, huh?”

She nodded and moaned, but kept her head down. For some reason, she felt acute embarrassment the man could get her off so easily and had been doing it all day. It didn’t take her long to realize there would be no controlling Wilhelm Yager—in bed or out.

“You want me to stop?”

She shook her head.

“Are you avoiding me, baby?”

She nodded her head.

“Why?”

“I’m embarrassed by my weakness.”

“Why? Because I can make you come whenever I want?”

Her head snapped up, an angry glare etched across her beautiful face. But before she could start ripping the feathers off his wings, he flicked her clit again. Her body stiffened, her eyes slammed shut, then her entire body clenched and she came hard and fast. He kept the pressure up, enjoying just watching her body writhe in release.

After a few moments, it seemed she couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop, stop, stop!”

She pulled away, panting hard, and rolled onto her side. “Well that was freakin’ amazing.”

“Thank you.”

She rolled onto her back and stared up at him. “Can I ask you something else?”

“What part of ‘ask me anything’ are we not grasping here?”

She rolled her eyes at his tone as her cheeks turned red. It took him a second to realize she was embarrassed and not by what he’d said either.

“I can’t believe I’m asking this, but…,” she took a huge breath, “could you really not tell you were holding onto my tits the other night?”

He snorted. “Of course I knew.” He brushed his cheek against her forehead, marveling at the realization Neecy let him see a side of her he knew she’d never show anyone else. “And, to quote you, they felt freakin’ amazing.”

Reaching up and punching him lightly in the chest, she teased, “That’s sexual harassment in the workplace. I could complain to Odin, ya know?”

“Odin is sexual harassment in the workplace.”

“I have noticed an even bigger increase in the jiggle factor with the newest crop of Valkyries.”

She watched as Yager retracted his wings and stretched out next to her on the floor, the two of them staring up at the ceiling. “Well, you’ve met some of the older Valkyries. They’re exceptionally cool. Very kick ass. Brutal. But Odin met that stripper a few years back and it’s been downhill ever since.”

Had it ever. And Neecy was the one who decked their leader, Clarissa. Or as all the Jersey Crows liked to call her, “That Valkyrie bitch Clarissa.” It was during the infamous Valkyrie-‐Crow bar fight in Yonkers. And every second she spent in jail that night…totally worth it.

The pair grinned as Yager suddenly took hold of her hand and intertwined their fingers together. Part of her wanted to snatch her hand back. Not that it didn’t feel good. It felt great. Too great. The act itself seemed so intimate to her.

Almost more than the two of them fucking.

“Okay. Another question for you,” Yager said as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. “If you hadn’t…uh…”

She knew where this was going. “Died? If I hadn’t died?”

“Man, you guys deal with that really well.”

She smiled. “Well, we’ve already done the hard part.”

“True. Okay, so if you hadn’t died, would you still be dealing drugs?”

“Oh, no. No, not at all.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. I was planning on moving into gun running. I hated dealing with addicts and the asshole kept pushing me to deal the harder shit, which meant the scarier addicts. So, I thought…gun running. My whole goal was simple…”

“Money?”

She shook her head. “College. I didn’t care what I had to do. I was going to college. I used to watch TV and I’d see all these people with good lives and they all seemed to have college educations.” She finally pulled her hand away from his, put both her arms over her head, and stretched. “The Gathering was actually perfect for me. They didn’t care if you hunted every night, all night, for ten weeks in a row. Your grades better be A’s or high B’s. And if you took the SATs, you better be in the twelve hundred to fifteen hundred range. If your grades slipped because you were screwing around, you got what we refer to as a Raven Elder–type beating.”

Grimacing, Yager said, “That’s brutal.”

“Yup. Needless to say we all work to keep our grades up. The other option’s just too scary. But they pay for all your education right through masters and doctorate work, so it balances out.”

“And you seem relatively unscathed.”

“Cause I’m really, really smart.”

He laughed and she decided to change the subject, hoping to get them back to safer, non-‐Neecy related ground.

“Will…what exactly do you do?”

“You mean besides save the world from evil?”

“Well, shit. I do that. What else do you do?”

“I don’t wanna tell ya.”

“Oh, come on. Admit it. The Ravens don’t have to work, do they?”

“What gave you that idea?”

“You guys always seem to be lounging around with your incredibly hot cars. I mean, all of you have offices, but we just figured you guys didn’t actually work in them.”

“We do work. All of us.”

“Then what do you do?”

He sighed. “Me, Tye, and Mike design game software.”

“No. Seriously.”

“I am serious.”

She snorted a laugh. “My God. You’re a geek!”

“Shut up.”

“A big, giant geek.” She laughed harder and suddenly he was straddling her hips.

The man was so enormous and she realized he may not take too kindly to her laughing at him. Most guys didn’t. The drug dealer boyfriend sure didn’t.

“You know, I actually take what I do quite seriously. It’s an art.”

“An…art?”

Fresh round of laughter from that. Man, she really hoped this guy had a sense of humor because she was practically hysterical at this point with a naked giant sitting on her.

“You’re making fun of me.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, come on! Computer games? What are you? Twelve?”

“What do you think paid for this apartment? And my house out on the Island?

And Tye’s Lamborghini? And the lawyer for Mike during that whole paternity mess? So, we’re not geeks.”

Neecy choked back the laughter. “Okay, then…where did you go to school?”

“MIT and Caltech.”

She pushed herself up on her elbows, staring straight into his eyes. “Geek. Geek.

Geek. With some nerd thrown in for flavor.”

Yager leaned down, their faces inches apart. “Yeah. And this geek has been getting you to scream his name. All. Day. Long.”

Damn right he had. And she’d been enjoying every goddamn minute of it.

“Pure luck,” she smirked. “But I bet you can’t do it again.”

“Neecy Lawrence, you know a Raven can never turn down a direct challenge.”

“Really?” she asked in mock innocence. “I’ve never heard that before. It must be a Viking thing. You know with my girl brain, I’d never understand any of that.”

“You know, Lawrence,” he began as he settled himself comfortably against her hips, his naked ass rubbing against her pelvis, his big hands framing her face. For such a big guy, he knew how to handle his size well. And nothing was more delicious than having Will Yager’s hard body at her disposal. “You really do talk some shit.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. And I think it’s time we find something else for your mouth to do. .”

Rachel lost sight of her prey as he went over a fence. She spread her wings and followed. As she moved something flashed past her, slamming into her wing and yanking her back, nailing her to a wall.

Screeching in rage, Rachel stared at the all-‐metal spear jutting from her body.

Covered in Nordic runes and infused with powerful magic, it pinned her to the red brick. Her feet didn’t even touch the ground.

Again she screeched in pain and rage. She reached for the spear as men stepped out from the shadows. Human men. Hunters. They were dressed like they were hunting deer in the mountains. She didn’t understand. How the hell did they see her? It was dark—cloaking time. Once her wings came out at night, only her prey, some Norse-‐descendent Shifters, and other Clans could see Crows when they were on the hunt. But these men were looking straight at her.

“Bastards!” she spat in Russian. She only used her father’s language when she was really pissed off. “I’ve already been killed by better than you.”

“Is it her?”

“No. Waste her.”

One of the men raised a rifle and aimed it at her. So focused on her, they never saw her sisters coming. Crows never fought alone. They’d been moving toward her from her first screech. Now her team leader, Delia, landed behind the one with the gun. Snatching his head back, she dragged her blade over his throat while another sister grabbed the gun from his hands before he could fire. They both moved so fast, the man didn’t even have a chance to whimper.

The other Hunters realized females surrounded them, so they went for their weapons. But they’d never be fast enough. Not against Crows.

Rachel gritted her teeth and yanked the spear out of her wing. She dropped to the ground and gutted the first Hunter who crossed her path. She liked this spear. She planned to keep it and use it for future hunts.

“You gonna stand there bleedin’ or you gonna kick a little ass, Rach?”

Rachel looked up at her team leader, and smiled.

Karl Waldgrave watched as the team of women ripped apart his men. He knew when he sent them out, they wouldn’t come back alive. They were necessary sacrifices to give him and the other Hunters an idea of how these females fought.

And even Waldgrave had to admit, as legendary a Hunter as he was, his goddess had given him a true challenge.

He offered up a silent thanks to Her as he planned his next move.