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Rafe

My hips around, guilt and anxiety playing across her face

"Youon?" I ask, while trying e to rip Jon&039;s head off; like Dria did to the headless Vikras her head a bit; appearing to be searching for the right words to tell e to kiss her servant She can&039;t shut hts as easily as she thinks "I&039;m sorry"

She rushes forward and throws her arms around me Dria nestles her head nearher nostrils with my scent "I have no excuse for what I almost did"

I can smell the sickly-sweet power of Jon&039;s pheromones in the cramped space Whether he pushed them out on purpose to seduce Dria or not re tied closely with him makes it especially hard for either one of us to resist the Were Running my hands up and down her back, I debate on our course of action Do I want to sharein my head is not my finest attribute, that&039;s for sure But I can&039;t say for certain where I stand on the topic while the scent of sex phero Dria&039;s bondedher blood, and when so h Jon, it&039;s a fine line for hten"Jon and I have an LLH relationship at best"

"LLH?"

"Like, Love, Hate Some days I like hiht be open to the idea of a threeso us both hard with his sexy vibe-and then the rest of the time I barely tolerate him and it skitters close to hate"

Dria reaches up on her toes to plant a soft kiss right below my ear "I know exactly what you mean And I&039; our embrace and look my wife in the eye "The past seven years have had difficult e it" I look over at the unclothed frame of et hier down"

With the two of us working together, wethe blood from the olf&039;s battered body He h theA slight tingle of fear skitters through htwere to happen to him

"He needs a mate, love," I say, as I help to shove one pink-skinned arm into a terrycloth robe "And quick"

"Yes," my wife replies as she brushes wet hair back from his forehead "But who? I couldn&039;t bear to have that self-centered, immature woman from Romeo&039;s pack here And it looked like Jon didn&039;t want her anyway"

"How can he want anyone else with you so near?"

"What do you ," I try to think of a tactful way to say she&039;s an inti to, you eclipse any other candidate who comes near him" She preens a bit at my compli nicely to say I scare his opportunities away, aren&039;t you?"

"Well to be fair, he hasn&039;t had a lot of suitable mates present themselves up here in the Arctic" Dria closes the sash on his robe, easily able to resist the lure of his toned flesh when I&039; out sex from every pore "And then when he coentina in the summer"

"That&039;s it!" she says

"What?"

"Why not have him stay here this time? We could open the inn up for the sue Maybe he&039;ll find a suitable candidate then"

I bend to scoop Jon up over my shoulder in a fireman&039;s carry "And what about the rest of the seethe? Would they stay here and live in the baseentina?"

Dria shrugs, for once appearing to no longer worry about the future "They can decide what they want to do and go where they want"

Judging by her lack of reaction, I&039; I&039;ve successfully masked my surprise over her response My control freak of a wife has co her new e step in the right direction

"Oh, except maybe for Paul I don&039;t think his control will be ready by then But we can wait and see" We head out into the frigid gyh the remains of the room carefully "And then of course, there&039;s Asa&039;s recent killing to consider"

Ahh and there it is I knew she couldn&039;t hold back orrying about the others for long I clearup so plywood for the broken ?" Drifts of snow have blown in and the room looks surreal Loose white powder swirls in the corners and partially covers the equipment "Where&039;s the body?"

"I called Drew before, he&039;s on it Must have removed it while ere in the shower Smart to do it before the crew arrives to fix the " She grabs the phone at her waist and starts to dial "But we need so out Vikrah the hot tub grotto, and enter the backdoor into our private kitchen, the deed has been done Drew heads up fro in one hand and jolts when he seesto be okay?"

"It was close," Dria says "We&039;re going to keep hi room &039;til he&039;s better"

"There are plenty of beds down below" Drew trails off when he catches the sharp eye ofnow" A burst of cold air hits my back as the vampire heads into the darkness with Vikra room and Dria pulls the seat cushions off the main sofa section and draws out the hide-a-bed The mattress doesn&039;t quite lay flat, but curls up a little at the top and bottorabs a throw from over the back and spreads the soft blanket across the oing to be recuperating right next topartner in her haste to e to toss the bastard onto the bed and settle the injured olf gently on the blanket "Two days, reed?"

Dria looks up at my pinched expression and nods "Thanks, honey I&039;h to leave before then"

Before I can respond, a scratching at the door has ate That furry fucker will be out in two days or I&039;ll be dragging his ass back to his cabin and paying Dr Cook all the overtime she wants to play nurselance out thein the door reveals a soft gray coat and two dark eyes Whining joins the next scrape as I close s must have smelled his blood on the wind," I call to Dria "You okay if I let his visitor in? Might help hi comes in cautiously when I open the door It holds its head down, ears pinned back, tail loose, and doesn&039;t make eye contact The canine walks slowly to where Jon is on the sofa bed and nudges his hand with its nose

"I think he nairl," she e her, "You can juh issues fro chunks of snow, and then co to be fur everywhere, da her head on his chest, and closes her eyes

"Weres heal better with their pack-mates around them, don&039;t they?" I ask

"Yes That&039;s why I wanted his, we&039;re all the pack he has"

"As long as I&039;m not expected to curl up and put my head on his chest, then I&039;m okay with him here For a little while" I head back to the kitchen and start a pot of coffee Waking up to the i around in my wife&039;s head certainly jolted me to full consciousness, but I prefer caffeine over adrenaline any day of the week

The rich aro coffee fills the suite Dria wanders in once the two on the couch seem sound asleep and sits at the table She runs a tired hand across her pale features, pausing a moment over her eyes to squeeze her temples

"When did you last have a restorative sleep?" I ask

"Hmm?"

"Down time, Dria? You may think you can stay up round-the-clock in the darkness, but you know you need to give your body a break every now and then, too"

She looks up, but appears unclear on a response "Umm Maybe three weeks? I havethis crazy adventure for a while now and there were a lot of last minute details I needed to tend to"

"And you didn&039;t think it would be beneficial to rest before the big day? You think sitting and collecting yourself is the sa your body to shut down and rest?" I shake my head, annoyed she&039;s pushed herself and put us all at risk "Is that why you missed Jon&039;s need for help until it was almost too late?"

She shoots up from the table and starts to pace "No, that was my fault, but for a different reason I tried my best to shut him out to keep the bond between you and me pure"

"You can&039;t protect us all Not all the tiaze "Yes, I can! What is the point to having all this power if I can&039;t protect those I love?"

I takean e my hands down her hair I whisper, "Shh it&039;s okay, love One person isn&039;t meant to protect so many You need to trust that we can protect ourselves and will call you e need you" I lean back to cradle a porcelain cheek in one calloused hand "You need to find a balance between controlling the voices andthe mind-links Or you won&039;t be there e call"