I Bite She Sucks, Bloom, Penelope [recommended reading TXT] 📗

“That’s true. Ever since I let you sleep with me, you’ve been a little happier.”

I put my fingertip to her lips, looking to Kyla, who appeared to be asleep. “Don’t give her anything to gossip about.”

“Kyla doesn’t strike me as a gossip.”

“That’s her trick. She lulls you into spilling all your secrets and then blabs to everyone she knows.”

“Liar.”

I smiled, then lowered my voice. “You may be right. There seems to be a connection between my mood and your pussy.”

I slapped his chest. “Riggs,” I laughed.

I put my lips to her ear. “My only regret is that I didn’t take the time to taste you.”

She shivered, then audibly swallowed. “Maybe next time we can spring for separate rooms from your sister.”

If there was a next time. “Yeah,” I said. “Absolutely. We may need thick walls.”

“That’s big talk. I hope you’re planning to follow through on all these dirty promises.”

I kissed her, then had to summon all my willpower not to take it further, even as she pressed her small body against mine and I felt her breasts against my arm. Her legs wrapped around mine and I thought I felt the heat coming from between her legs and into my thigh. God. I desperately wished I could temporarily move Kyla to another room.

“We could be quiet,” Sylvie whispered.

“I’m not sleeping, and my ears are unfortunately very strong. If you two start humping, I swear to god I’ll pull the comforter off the window and fry us both.”

Sylvie’s eyes went wide.

I suppressed a laugh. “Maybe not,” I said.

Sylvie slammed her eyes shut and looked like she was willing herself to fall asleep.

I didn’t go to sleep right away. I lay there with my arm around her, enjoying the slow rhythm of her breathing and the warmth of her body against mine.

This small woman had gone from a stranger to being my world in a little over a week. I marveled at that. I hadn’t realized I was spiraling toward a dark place until she came along and violently yanked me out of it, but it was true, wasn’t it? She was fixing me, moment by moment.

I knew I had to protect her. I had to find a way to make this right, because she’d given me something worth fighting for.

39

Sylvie

Riggs worked on a gas station hotdog, a bag of chips, two candy bars, and a soda while he drove. I wanted to be jealous of the food, but my stomach was already betraying me. Just looking at it made me feel nothing. It was like staring at a mailbox and trying to summon up feelings of hunger.

That was a little sad. I wished I’d put a little more effort into enjoying what I guessed was my last meal as a human. My last time eating real food.

Just thinking about it was making me feel weird, so I rolled down the window to distract myself. Cold night air gusted through my hair and I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation.

Kyla nudged me a while later. “See that little town?” she asked.

I opened my eyes and looked over the rolling hills we were driving along. There was a picturesque town nestled between the trees. Some of the buildings went right up to a large, sapphire blue lake that was casting the moon’s reflection in several broken, wavering images.

“That’s where the Silverback’s live?” I asked.

Riggs nodded. “Home sweet home,” he said, voice laced with bitterness.

“So are we going to just knock on the town hall building or something?” I asked.

“They already know we’re here.” Riggs directed my eyes to the side of our car where I saw something darting between the trees in the shadows. When I looked closer, I realized it was several somethings.

“That’s not creepy at all,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Kyla said. “They probably aren’t planning to kill us.”

“Super comforting.”

We parked at the edge of town where a torn and faded sign read, “You’re not welcome in Silverback.”

I quirked an eyebrow at that. What a shocker that these werewolves lived here by themselves. I couldn’t imagine why nobody bothered to visit.

“Come on,” Riggs said, motioning for us to get out of the truck and wait.

I tried to stop my hands from shaking as I followed him out. Vivid images of being mauled by a pack of werewolves kept assaulting my brain, but I trusted Riggs. He wouldn’t have us doing this if there was another way.

I looked around us. We were on a pothole ridden road that was barely wide enough for two cars. Tall waist-high grass grew on either side and less than a mile from that was what looked like endless stretches of gently rolling wooded hills.

Pretty. If I wasn’t worried this was going to be the place I died.

It was quiet, too. Almost like even the bugs had decided to head off for the moment until the tension passed.

I was about to ask Riggs something when three men seemed to simply form out of nowhere in the grass across from us. One minute, there was nothing, the next I saw them rising up bare chested and stern faced.

Two lingered back like guardsmen and the one in the center approached. He was smaller than Riggs, but there was a confident set to his shoulders and the glare in his eyes that told me he was no slouch among these werewolves. He had handsome features with what I’d come to see as the characteristic ruggedness of werewolves. Something about the transformation to a vampire seemed to soften people and make them appear more lithe and elegant. The werewolf transformation made them look like warriors—all hard lines, rough textures, and abrasiveness. I could see how both cultures must’ve naturally clashed.

“Pax,” Riggs said stiffly.

“Riggs,” the shorter man said. He had a voice like whispering gravel that made my skin crawl. “You and your bitch sister have balls coming back. I’ll give you that. But it looks like you brought us a plaything.” He slid his eyes toward