Dark Instincts

  “What?” Cam sighed. “You guys are weird.”

  In the kitchen, Roni and Marcus fought over what food was left—to the extreme amusement of those around them—but he didn’t mind, because it meant he’d got her to play with him. Later, after she’d annoyed Eli a little more and Marcus had taken about as much as he could of Dominic hitting on her with cheesy lines, Marcus tugged on her hand. “Come with me.”

  “Huh?”

  “Come with me.” He led her through the labyrinth of tunnels, straight to his room. The second the door closed behind them, he was on her. Molten need flared through him as his mouth found hers, feasting on her. Pulling the tie from her hair, he buried his hands in the silky tresses—an image of her hair draped over his thighs as she sucked him off flashed through his mind, and a growl rumbled out of him. “I’ve been thinking about this all fucking day.”

  The harsh words spoken against her mouth made her gasp. She would have admitted to feeling the same torture, but then he was sucking on her tongue. She fisted her hands in his T-shirt as his hands roamed over her body like he owned her, possessively cupping her ass. Then he froze as one hand skimmed over her hip.

  “What’s this? Have you brought a weapon on my territory, Roni? Because, you know, as an enforcer, I’d have to deal with that kind of insult.”

  Breathless and kind of confused, she double-blinked. “What? It’s just my cell phone.” And why was he talking?

  “Hmm. You understand I have to be sure.” He spun her to face the wall and placed her hands firmly on it. “Arms and legs spread wide apart.”

  Okay, now she was really confused. And she didn’t appreciate his tone. “What’s that now?”

  “You heard me. Now do as you’re told.”

  “Oh, you motherfucker!” She struggled to move out of his hold, but a sharp bite to her nape had her freezing in shock. Her wolf urged her to be still rather than fight him, to play, which was surprising enough to make her quiet.

  “No respect for authority, have you?” He ground himself against her, letting her feel just how hard he was. “I’ll say it one more time: spread your arms and legs wide apart.”

  Curious, Roni did as he asked—well, ordered.

  “That’s it. Is there anything you want to tell me? You can make this much easier on yourself if you just tell me the truth.”

  His breath on her neck made her shudder. She would have expected to find role-play kind of amusing, but the sexual hunger creeping over her left her incapable of humor. “No. I have nothing to tell you.”

  “Fine, we’ll do this my way.” His body throbbing with a savage, carnal need that would have left him shaken if his brain had room for thought, Marcus kicked her legs wider apart.

  “What are you doing?”

  “A body search, of course. This will go much easier if you just keep nice and still. No struggling.” His tone was uncompromising, implacable.

  Starting at Roni’s shoulders, he began to slowly but firmly pat down her upper body. His confident, knowing hands were anything but cool and detached, making her tremble and squirm. She gave a low moan as his hands briefly skated over her breasts.

  “I have to be certain you’re not concealing anything here.” Marcus gathered the bottom of her T-shirt and slowly slid it over her head, tossing it on the floor. Her bra quickly joined it. Then he pressed his body against hers as his hands slid to her breasts—they were the perfect handful. He kneaded and squeezed them, pausing occasionally to pinch and tweak her nipples with just the right amount of pressure to make her arch against him while moaning and grinding against his cock.

  Nibbling on the back of her shoulder, Marcus snaked a hand down her flat, taut stomach, inching farther and farther toward what he wanted most. “Is there anything hiding in here I should know about?”

  Before Roni could say a word, he’d unzipped her pants and thrust his hand inside and past the barrier of her boy shorts to cup her hard. His hand lingered there, unmoving, driving her insane with anticipation. Restless, she twisted her hips, trying to find some relief. The cruel bastard withdrew his hand a little.

  “Oh, no, sweetheart. Be nice and still for me.” When she stilled, he slid his hand farther down and flicked her clit with his finger. She moaned loudly, but she didn’t move. He slipped a finger through her folds, growling at how slick she was. “There doesn’t seem to be anything here. But I have to be sure.” He squatted on the ground, removed her shoes, and then peeled down her pants. The boy shorts were hot as fuck, giving him sneak peeks of that perfect little ass, but they had to go too. He tapped her lightly on her leg. “Step out of the pants and shorts.”

  Roni did as he asked and kicked them aside. On one level, it galled her to follow his every order without question. But pride wouldn’t make her come, would it? And there was a very big difference in the way that Marcus treated her and the way that guys had acted before. Marcus dominated her during sex, but he didn’t try to do it outside of the bedroom. For that reason, it didn’t make her bristle. Still, if he didn’t hurry and make her come, she’d lose her damn patience.

  Marcus shackled her ankles with his hands and slowly slid them up her toned legs. “Hmm. All clear. But what about . . . here?” Canting her hips slightly, he treated himself to a fantastic view of her pussy—her folds were swollen and glistening, making his wolf growl with hunger. “You can’t have any idea how good you smell to me.”

  Roni gasped as he abruptly plunged a finger inside her. He wasn’t gentle—each thrust was hard, sure, and bold. Then he found her G-spot at the exact same time that his tongue joined the fray, and she almost crumpled to the floor. Damn, the guy knew his way around the female body.

  “You taste good.” Without removing his finger, Marcus delivered a sharp bite to her ass before standing upright again and whipping off his T-shirt one-handed. “I’m going to shove my cock in your pussy, Roni.” He nipped her nape, making her jolt. “I’m going to fuck you fast and deep.”

  The feel of hard muscle against her bare back sent a tremor running through her, just as the feel of denim against the backs of her thighs made her moan. Her knees almost buckled when his teeth grazed over the mark on her neck. He licked and sucked, as if fascinated with it. At this point, she was frantic to have him inside her . . . and he was prolonging the fucking agony.

  “Marcus, now,” she gritted out. The asshole spanked her ass instead. “Oh, you son of a—” He did it again. Roni sharply jammed her elbow into his ribs. His response? He drove another finger deep inside her and swirled them both around.

  With his free hand, he fisted her hair and snatched her head back. “Striking an enforcer on his own territory is a punishable offense.”

  Panting with want, she licked her lips. “No more playing.” Clearly he needed reminding that he was dealing with a dominant female. Curling an arm around his nape, she scratched hard enough to draw blood—his growl vibrated through his chest, sending a shiver down her back. “I need to come.”

  Withdrawing his fingers, Marcus curled her hips slightly, positioning her to take him. “Me, Roni, you need me,” he corrected. Then he rammed every inch of himself inside her.

  Roni felt her muscles contract around him as an orgasm tore through her, taking her by complete surprise with its ferocity. He didn’t wait for the aftershocks to subside, didn’t give her a reprieve. He pumped in and out of her, his hands clamped possessively on her hips, his fingers biting into the skin.

  “Yes, this is what I want.” He had the feeling it was something he’d always want. With both hands now once again braced against the wall, she tried pushing back to counter his thrusts. Oh, no, he wasn’t having that. Marcus slapped her ass with the flat of his hand. “No, sweetheart, I’ll fuck you. All I want you to do is take it.” Her warning growl made him smile.

  She glared at him over her shoulder. “I’m not submissive.”

  “I didn’t say you’re submissive. I said I do the fucking, and you do the taking. It’s like I told you last time: when
I’m inside this pussy, it’s mine. And right now, I want to fuck it.”

  She might have met that statement with a string of profanities, but then he was pounding into her harder, faster, and deeper—giving her exactly what she needed.

  “I’m going to come, sweetheart. I want you to come with me. Now.”

  His teeth sinking into her shoulder was like a trigger; she threw her head back and screamed as wave after wave of ecstasy racked her body almost violently. He cursed against her neck as he slammed deep one final time and exploded inside her. That was when all her strength seemed to leave her body in a rush. If he hadn’t slipped an arm around her waist, she’d have crashed to the floor.

  To her appreciation, he very carefully carried her limp body to the en suite bathroom, cleaned them both up, and then just as carefully carried her to the bed. Removing the rest of his clothes, he then lay beside her, lightly tracing the new mark on her shoulder while self-satisfaction glinted in his eyes. “Very pleased with that, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” So was his wolf.

  Hearing her cell phone ringing, she groaned. She’d assigned that ringtone to a person who she didn’t want to speak to right then.

  “Aren’t you going to answer it?”

  “No. It’s my mother. She’s probably having a hernia because she suspects I’m exactly where I am right now. Annoying me is her favorite hobby.”

  “You know why she does it, don’t you? Why she’s interfering and overprotective?”

  “Because she’s convinced that I can’t take care of myself after what happened when I was a juvenile.”

  “No, sweetheart, that’s not it at all. That’s not why Nick does it either.”

  Her brows knitted together. “What do you mean?”

  Although Marcus didn’t know all the details of the attempted rape, he was very sure of one thing: “Nick feels guilty because he’s convinced he traumatized you when he attacked those humans to save you.”

  Yeah, Shaya had said as much to Roni.

  “In his mind, he needs to make it up to you. So he tries to protect you from everything bad in the world. It’s not because he thinks you’re incapable of taking care of yourself—it’s his way of trying to ease his own burden.” Which was selfish, in Marcus’s opinion. But it was possible that it was all subconscious on Nick’s part. The guy cared about his sister.

  Roni puffed out a long breath, never having thought of it that way before. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. But why do you think my mother does it?”

  “Simple: she knows you’re more dominant than she is.” He lightly circled her belly button with his finger, liking the way her abdomen clenched at his touch. “I’m sure your wolf feels uncomfortable around females more dominant than she is and her instinct is to slap them down, make sure they understand the hierarchy, so they’re no threat to you. It’s the same for every dominant female. Kathy won’t want to go down a step in the hierarchy. It’s about pride.”

  Well, hell. “Why did I not see any of this before?” She considered herself an intelligent, observant person.

  “Because they’re your family—you don’t expect that shit from family. But the fact is that, first and foremost, they’re people, and people can be dicks.”

  There was an edge to his tone that told her he was talking from experience. She didn’t want to probe into his “twisted story,” but she figured her question wasn’t too invasive. “You have the same problem with one of your parents?”

  “Yes. My dad.” He didn’t elaborate, and he felt Roni tense. “Something wrong?”

  “I don’t like double standards.”

  “There aren’t any double standards with us.”

  “You repeatedly ask me to share, but then you’re all cagey about your own business. I’m not saying you need to tell me everything—I get that there are some things you won’t want to talk about. That’s fine. But if you’re going to be cagey about every little thing, stop asking me to share my own shit.”

  “All you have to do is ask me, Roni. Like I told you, there are some things you’re better off not knowing. As for the rest, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But you have to ask.”

  Okay, now she understood what he was doing—pulling her fully into the conversation, making her take an active part in it rather than just answering his questions. Sneaky bastard. “Fine. Has your dad always been that way?”

  “It started around the time I had my first shift. But we didn’t really clash over it until I was fifteen.” In actuality, though, they’d never gotten along.

  “Why did you clash?” she gritted out when he purposely didn’t elaborate.

  “I’d decided to leave the pack with Trey.” The pack’s decision to ostracize Trey was made after he defeated his father in a duel, and it had caused a divide in the pack. Many had then left with Trey to form their own pack—thus, the Phoenix Pack was born.

  “Your dad wanted you to stay?”

  “Actually, no. The plan had been for me and my parents to move to my aunt’s pack. But when all that shit happened with Trey, I chose to leave with him. My dad didn’t like it, and he tried to dominate me into doing what he wanted. But it didn’t work, and he realized I was more dominant than him.” In Marcus’s opinion, getting away from them had saved his sanity.

  “He didn’t take it too well?” she assumed.

  “No. I’d known it for years, and I think he suspected it, but that day confirmed it.”

  “You said you have sisters. They didn’t leave with your parents either?”

  “I have three sisters. They’re all older, and they’d mated into different packs by then.”

  “Are things okay with your dad now?” She wanted to ask if he was the violent asshole Nick had described, but that kind of story should be given willingly, not dragged out of someone.

  “No.” Even if his father had been able to cope well with it, things would never have been okay between them. “We were never close. He’s a hard man. He’s also an extremely proud dominant male who was Head Enforcer for most of his life. To know that his son was more dominant than him hurt his pride.”

  “Ah, well, that explains it.” She nodded, totally getting this wolf now.

  Marcus frowned. “What?”

  “Why you downplay your dominance. You’ve been doing it for so long to placate your dad and protect his pride that it became part of your personality. Add in the fact that you simply have no fear of being challenged, and it’s no wonder that you are the way you are.”

  Marcus thought about that for a minute. “You might be right.”

  She snorted. “Of course I’m right.” He chuckled against her shoulder before kissing it lightly.

  As her hand drew patterns down his arm, Marcus closed his eyes in contentment. Her touch was rarely given, so it meant more. When those fingers skimmed over the claw marks on his arm, her hand froze, and she quickly snatched it back—like a kid caught with their hand in a cookie jar.

  “Sorry.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry. I’m not going to break down because you touched a scar.” And he wanted her hand back on him, but she didn’t look convinced. “Will it help if I tell you how I got it?” Before she could answer, he began, “When our old pack split and we left with Trey, there was another among us. His mom, Louisa. She left her mate behind to stay with Trey. Some can handle that type of distance from their mate, but she . . . Some people just aren’t strong. The separation was too much for her and her wolf. Eventually, she turned rogue. She targeted me . . . Trey snapped her neck.”

  Fuck, Roni truly hadn’t seen that coming. She’d assumed it was a souvenir from one of his father’s beatings—if such a thing had even happened.

  “Don’t think I wallow or dwell. I don’t. She was rogue; there was no coming back from that. But I hate that I’d hesitated and placed Trey in a position where he had to step in, even though Trey’s told me over and over that he gets it.” He nipped her earlobe, craving some physical contact. As if she se
nsed that, she smoothed her hand over his shoulder. “I never wanted to be an enforcer, you know. Like you, I don’t like to follow or lead. But I took the position because he asked.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “So you see, we’re similar in that way, you and me. We’re both trying to make up for something that really wasn’t our fault.”

  “I guess we are.”

  He licked over his new mark, drawn to it in a way he couldn’t explain. “I can sense how relaxed your wolf is right now. My wolf wants to play with her.” The animal sensed that her wolf would be an interesting playmate.

  “Don’t you mean ‘mount’?” Roni snickered.

  He smiled impishly. “That too.”

  Her wolf had no objections to that. In fact, she was pushing for it, and that was a real worry. “I’m wary about allowing the two of them to run together.”

  “Why?”

  “My wolf can be playful. But she’s very aggressive when going after what she wants.”

  Marcus easily read between the lines. “You think she’d brand my wolf?”

  “I know she’ll leave him all marked up.” When it came to marking a shifter while they were in their human form, it wasn’t so serious; the human half could be okay with it, and the inner wolf might even approve. But when in their animal form, most shifters didn’t like being marked by any other than its mate. And Roni’s wolf had a very big thing for Marcus Fuller.

  “As long as she’s okay with my wolf doing the same to her, we won’t have a problem.”

  That sure shocked her. “What’s that now?”

  Marcus shook his head at Roni’s flabbergasted expression. “You have absolutely no idea what you do to my wolf, do you? He wants you as much as I do. He likes the look of my mark on your skin.”

  “Just how many females—or males, for that matter—have you branded in your time?”

  That made Marcus tense. “You really want to know?”

  Did she, even though what suspiciously felt like jealously threatened to surface? “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” With more conviction, she added, “I want to know, other than me, how many have you marked?”