Alpha Guardians Books 1-6

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Rhys

Rhys stalked into the Manor, giving Gabriel a sharp glance. Gabriel had an arm wrapped around Echo’s tiny Aunt Ella, who looked as if she might keel over from exhaustion at any moment. Duverjay met them at the front door, giving Rhys an odd sort of bow.

“Your lady is upstairs resting,” the butler told Rhys. Duverjay had filled Rhys in on Echo’s near-disastrous escape attempt via text message, no doubt anticipating Rhys’s fury at the man’s failure to keep her in the Manor for a mere hour.

Rhys gave Duverjay a curt nod, and the butler made himself scarce. Rhys turned his attention to Gabriel, Aeric, and Tee-Elle.

“Gabriel’s going to take you upstairs to rest for a little while,” Rhys said, taking Tee-Elle’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “You and Echo can have breakfast together in the morning, as soon as you’re feeling up to it.”

“You’re too sweet,” Tee-Elle said, giving Rhys a faint smile and patting his arm. “That must be why my Echo likes you so much.”

Rhys’s gaze drifted up to the second floor, and he tried to keep his expression blank. Inside he was nothing but thunderously anger, but poor Tee-Elle didn’t need to know that.

“Must be,” Rhys muttered. “Gabriel, help her upstairs, please.”

Gabriel winked at Tee-Elle, making her laugh, and the two trudged up to the guest room on the first floor. Aeric had already given Rhys permission to put Tee-Elle there until something more permanent could be found for her.

“You’re probably going to have to beat her.”

Rhys’s gaze snapped to Aeric, who was looking far too amused.

“Shut up. I hope that when you find your mate, she tortures you twice as bad. Three times, actually.”

Aeric merely smirked and shrugged.

“I’m a thousand years old. If I haven’t found my mate yet, the chances that I will do so are almost zero,” Aeric replied.

Rhys tried not to gape at Aeric as the other Guardian turned and headed into the living area. A thousand years old? Rhys knew that bear shifters could live for hundreds of years, but a thousand years? He’d never heard of the like. Not to mention the fact that Aeric was in the prime of his life, as fit and sharp as anyone Rhys had ever encountered.

Aeric’s little revelation helped cool Rhys’s temper a bit, a welcome distraction. His anger dissipated somewhat as he headed upstairs, and when he found Echo sleeping soundly in his bed he found it difficult to maintain his ire.

When Rhys sat next to her on the bed Echo stirred, blinking awake and stretching. She froze when she saw him, biting her lower lip.

“I wasn’t trying to run,” she blurted out, a lovely flush spreading across her cheeks.

“No?” Rhys asked, raising a brow. It was difficult to keep a smile from his lips; she was sweet and vulnerable like this, wrapped up in the comforter as she brushed her mass of blonde hair back from her face.

“I just wanted to watch,” she sighed. “That’s why I had the mirror. But someone put a charm on the mirror to sting me if I tried to use it, so I needed to go outside the wards.”

Rhys chewed on that for a moment, shaking his head. She’d not only circumvented his wishes, but she’d actually managed to put herself in more danger doing so. Echo didn’t seem one to take orders well, and Rhys should have expected something like this. He had, actually, going so far as to warn Duverjay. Unfortunately Echo had proven too sneaky for the butler, nosy though he was.

“I understand,” Rhys said, choosing to let the subject lie.

“Yeah?” Echo said, pushing herself up to sit closer to him. “I thought you were gonna be really mad.”

Rhys smirked.

“Oh, I am,” he assured her. “Furious, in fact. With you, and with Duverjay. He was supposed to be babysitting you.”

Echo’s expression darkened, and he could see that she wanted to argue with his statement. She stared at him for several long moments, then rolled her eyes.

“Whatever,” she concluded, dropping her challenging gaze.

“Echo,” Rhys said, moving closer and cupping her jaw.

She flashed those stunning amethyst eyes at him, her lips parting to speak, but Rhys killed her response with a kiss. He tried to keep the kiss light and playful, but Echo couldn’t even let him have that much self-control. She answered his kiss with infinite passion, her hands clutching at his shoulders, a little moan vibrating from her throat.

Rhys deepened the kiss, tongue twining with hers, teasing and dancing until they were both breathless. Rhys had to force himself to pull back.

“Are you hurt? Tell me the truth,” he demanded, scanning her face.

“No,” Echo whispered. “Not a scratch.”

Rhys took her lips again with a hungry groan, releasing her only to strip off green sundress she wore. When he realized that it was his shirt she wore, a dam within him burst. He stared down at her, wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy white panties and his scent, and he knew he had to have her. There would be no more waiting. Rhys yanked his own shirt up and tore it off, then he laid Echo back against the thick, downy comforter.

He pulled her arms up over her head, pinning them there as he admired the graceful arc of her bare torso, the perfection of her naked breasts. Her n*****s were already hardened peaks, and Rhys could see goosebumps covering her arms and ribs.

He leaned down, holding her wrists with one hand, and flicked his tongue over one perfect, dusky n****e. His mouth watered as he nibbled and sucked, drawing a breathy stutter from Echo’s lips. Releasing her hands, he cupped both of her breasts and lifted them higher, teasing her with his lips and teeth until she was writhing beneath him.

Echo’s fingernails trailed up and down his back in lazy lines, and Rhys had the distinct impression that she would be marking his flesh in a matter of minutes. The thought of Echo in the throes of passion urged Rhys on, and he rose to strip off her panties. Echo raised her hips to help him, but before he could descend on her again she stopped him with a hand to his chest.

“I want to see all of you,” she said, nibbling her bottom lip.

Echo’s hands fluttered to the waistband of his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping them before shoving them down his hips. Rhys stepped back from the bed and shucked his pants altogether, appreciating the startled look on Echo’s face as she examined him fully nude. His c**k jutted proudly from his body, thick and hard with want for her, and when he returned to her side he groaned as Echo encircled his girth with shaking fingers.

He would have laughed at the awed expression on her face, but Echo explored his length with several tentative strokes, making every muscle in his body tense and shudder. When Echo swiped her tongue over her bottom lip and looked up at him with a questioning glance, Rhys shook his head.

“If you use your mouth on me, I’ll never last,” he said. “I’ve been hard for you since I laid eyes on you.”

Echo surprised him with a grin.

“I’ll be quick, I promise,” she said, pushing him onto his back.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Rhys said, but he made no effort to stop her as she crawled down his body.

Echo fisted his c**k and teased the crown with quick lashes of her tongue, making Rhys wild. When the soft heat of her mouth engulfed the head of his c**k, it took every ounce of Rhys’s control to let her be. All he wanted in that moment was to put a hand at the back of her head, angle her just the right way, and f**k her mouth with complete abandon. God knew he’d imagined it enough over the last week, the way it would feel if Echo took him all the way to the back of her throat.

His heart thundered in his chest, and it nearly killed him to pull her away. He needed to f**k her properly, seal their bond with a mating bite. Besides, he wanted to keep her in awe of his bedroom skills, something that surely wouldn’t happen if he spent in her mouth like a teenaged virgin.

But damn if her mouth wasn’t the sweetest thing he’d ever felt.

Easing Echo back from his c**k, he pulled her up until she lay sprawled over his body. Kissing her deeply, he growled at the earthy taste of his c**k on her tongue.

Echo slipped her hand between them and grasped his length once more, aligning their bodies. Rhys was shocked at her slickness when the crown of his c**k met her sheath; the feeling of her readiness clawed at his control, and he knew he needed to take over lest she unman him.

Rhys smirked at the little gasp Echo gave when he flipped her over and spread her legs wide, gripping his d**k and rubbing the head up and down her s*x from c**t to channel.

Echo whimpered, and Rhys was floored as much by her desire as his own. He took a slow minute to tease her c**t with his thumb as he pressed the thick crown of his c**k to her entrance, enjoying her frustrated moans. She clutched at his shoulders, trying to pull him closer, but Rhys let the moment build, wanting to savor the first moments.

When Echo bucked her hips up against him, forcing Rhys’s c**k the barest inch into her body, Rhys lost some of his precious control. Gripping her hips, he watched her face as he pushed inside, sliding deep in one forceful thrust, stretching her body to accommodate him.

“Oh!” Echo cried, even as Rhys growled at the feel of her.

“f**k, you’re so perfect,” he gritted out. “So tight.”

He thrust again, disbelieving. He’d known she would be amazing, but this was far beyond that. Every slick, clenching inch of her channel gripped him, and it took all of his concentration not to spend right then and there.

“Rhys,” Echo whimpered. “I—”

She didn’t have to tell him that she was close, he could feel it. As a matter of fact, as Rhys built up a steady rhythm, working in and out of her tight heat, he began to feel more than his own pleasure. He could actually sense a bit of the pleasure that she felt as well, doubling his own delight.

It was overwhelming in the most glorious sense. Rhys slowed so that he could pull Echo’s knees up over his shoulders, then drove into her more forcefully.

“Rhys!” Echo shouted. If he hadn’t been able to sense her enjoyment, he’d have thought he was killing her.

He took her deep and hard and fast, losing himself in the feel of her body, palming one of her incredible breasts as he pumped in and out, feeling Echo’s muscles begin to tense around him.

He slid his hand around to her lower back, lifting her up a few inches, trying to get the perfect angle…

Echo screamed, her voice shattering his concentration, but Rhys only grinned. Apparently he’d found the right spot, because Echo convulsed against him, her core clenching, milking his c**k. Her expression was complete bliss as she came, her orgasm stunning and forceful.

Only then did Rhys drop her ass back onto the mattress and let himself focus on his own completion, managing only a handful of thrusts before his body tightened impossibly. His completion took him almost by surprise, jerking a hard shout from his throat as he spilled deep into Echo’s body. He cursed as he pumped jet after jet inside his mate, her body draining him utterly.

Rhys buried his face against Echo’s neck, sinking his teeth deep into the sensitive spot where her shoulder met her nape. Echo cried out and shuddered with both pleasure and pain, the sensations so strong that Rhys felt them in his very bones. When he released her he took his time licking the mark, using their bond to heal the wound, leaving a fresh red mating mark behind. His brand on her flesh, his seed in her body, his claim on her heart.

Rhys was suddenly, finally complete.

Rhys gave Echo a final long, deep kiss before withdrawing and collapsing beside her. He pulled her close, content for the moment to lie there and catch his breath, and listen to Echo’s harsh breathing.