Lilith smiled at the two little boys who slept in her bed. They were darling, like little pups who needed her tender loving care to grow up right. She almost couldn’t imagine destroying them at the slightest annoyance, almost. “Sleep my little darlings,” she sighed. “Because you’re going to secure my prize for me, or die trying.”
She sat in a chair near them and finally slept. Being up half the night with them before they’d finally settled down and slept had taken its toll on her. Still, she dreamed of the moment when Romeo had been informed that they were missing. It’d been far too easy to drug his daughter and her mate. The boys had been so fast asleep that they hadn’t even woken up as they’d been plucked from their beds. It was like taking candy from a baby, and Lilith was disappointed there wasn’t even as much as a small fight. Killing the great alpha’s son had been an impulse… ripping out his daughter’s throat would have been pure pleasure.
“Come to me,” Lilith heard in her dreams. “Come to me Lilith. I know it’s you I’ve always wanted. These last years I’ve had to settle for the best I could get, but now… now I know what I can have and that’s you, darling.”
“What about your pack?”
“My pack will do as I say. If I say you are my queen, they’ll respect it and you. I’ll pay Amanda handsomely for her time, but she’ll not sit where you belong. Maybe we can keep her on as a concubine when we’re feeling frisky for a threesome.”
“Oh,” Lilith smiled. “Now you’re talking my language. I do enjoy a good love triangle, you know.”
“Will you accept my rule?” Romeo asked.
“Certainly, darling. All I’ve ever wanted was to rule at your side. To be the queen I always knew I was. I impulsively went after Damon, knowing he’d be the first choice for alpha, but in my heart I always knew it was you I wanted. I’d lay awake at night, touching myself at the thought of being with you. Even after Damon and I were intimate, it never satiated my drive to mate with you.”
“Excellent,” he smiled. “Because lately I’ve grown weary of my wife and our family. There’s a need inside me to return to the animal instincts. Mating should be more than just a casual, careful joining. There should be heat, passion, and a hell of a lot of rough sex involved.”
Lilith couldn’t have agreed more, as inside her dream she grew wet and ripe for him. She’d been dreaming of this night for as long as Romeo had been of age. He and Damon had been inseparable until she’d come along. Too late she’d realized it was Romeo she wanted and not his minutes older brother. Still, she couldn’t deny that Damon had been a fun way to waste a few years. It’d taken Romeo that long to realize the darkness in her heart, slow by even a werewolf’s standards. She’d hoped to turn him to her like her brother, but apparently he needed more time. It looked as if he was finally ready now though and she’d take full advantage of him while she was at it. She’d be more than queen. She’d be a freaking God to the Delta pack and in bed, she’d give Romeo the ultimate prize.
“Lilith!” Startled, Lilith shot up from the chair to the sound of the babies crying. Rubbing sleep from her eyes she remembered the two grandchildren she’d kidnapped from under the Delta pack’s nose.
“I’m on it, Fenris,” she groaned. Standing, she came to the boys and realized quickly that they definitely needed diaper changes. She’d never been the domestic sort and the thought of taking care of two little ones for longer than it took to reel in their grandfather was nearly overwhelming.
“I never realized how impulsive you are,” he said, his dark eyes humored at her frustration. “Do you still plan on trying to snare him?”
“I’ll have him one way or another, or no one will.”
“You mean to tell me after twenty-four years, give or take some months that you’re still so hung up on him that you can’t see a life without him? What the hell has he done for you?”
“What have you done for me?”
“You infected me, you bitch,” Fenris fumed.
He looked so damn sexy when he was angry, Lilith thought. Maybe she’d have them both. A woman’s appetite needed tending after all.
“I gave you a gift,” she said, her tone lethal. “I’ll thank you not to forget it.”
“How could I? I’m damned to change my shape, to be an animal, every damn time the moon becomes full. Did you ever stop to wonder at what you were doing?”
“Not really,” she smiled. “That’s the lovely part about being the queen that I am. I don’t really have to concern myself with consequences. Hell, Fenris. Did it ever occur to you what we could have built if I hadn’t died? I forgave you eons ago for your philandering. After all, it’s the line that Romeo and Damon Traverse came from. But, we could have had a sweet little hierarchy if you’d kept your dick in your pants.”
“Me? You were just as bad. You wouldn’t meet with me when I wanted. What was I supposed to do?”
“Wouldn’t meet you? It was you who couldn’t keep me satisfied.”
“Oh, I beg to differ,” Fenris argued as she changed first Brody Jr. and then Jedidiah. She’d made bottles of goat’s milk and handed one to Fenris. She took one of the twins and sat down to feed him. Fenris begrudgingly joined her. “I don’t expect your memory to be flawless, especially after dying and all, but mine is still as sharp as a tack and I distinctly recall that you turned me away much more often than I ever did you. If fact, to my recollection, I never turned you away.”
“You, Fenris, simply don’t like to be second best and you’re deathly afraid that if I take Romeo as my lover, you’ll be forgotten in the wasteland of my past.”
“Actually, I’m just waiting for you to realize that he can’t give you what you want and I can.”
“Oh, honey. If you could give me what I want, I wouldn’t have to worm my way into Romeo’s life, now would I?”
“Being an alpha’s queen is as easy as mating with me.”
“And can you give me the Delta pack? Easily the largest pack this side of the Delta River?”
“I can lay waste to their dreams and rebuild from the ashes a pack that’s ten times as large and strong as the Delta pack only dreams of being.”
“You talk a big, bad talk, Fenris, but so far I’ve only seen you lay waste to the outer rim of their pack. Show me something magical and perhaps you’ll turn my attention back to you.”
Fenris turned and taking the baby in his arms with him, walked away from her. He looked down at the squirming baby and grinned. “She has no idea what I can do to their pack, does she?”
He wouldn’t hurt a baby like this, but Fenris knew that if he wanted the Delta pack to disperse, he’d have to make his next move serious. It would have to really hurt their heart and their numbers. He fed the little boy and then laid him down in his bed to sleep.
Fenris then left to meet with his pack to discuss the upcoming hunt. After their planning session, he dismissed them to gather their weapons and things and turned to check on the baby, noting Lilith’s entrance as he did. “What the hell is going on? Your pack is the laziest excuse I’ve ever seen and yet everyone seems to be doing something today.”
“We’re going hunting,” Fenris said simply. “Our stores are low and we obviously can’t feed this horde without food.”
“Werewolves hunt with the change.”
“Yes,” he smiled, as if he were talking to a slightly uncontrolled child. “But we both know our humans need food as well. Would you suggest I only feed my pack during the change?”
Her eyes, dark as her soul, were furious. “No. What do you plan to do with him?” Fenris looked at the boy sleeping on his bed.
“Put him with his brother. Don’t twins need to be close when they’re little? You wanted to kidnap them to make a statement and I’d say it worked well, but do you really want to scar them with Romeo coming your way? If you want him for your lover, the last thing you want to do is to harm his grandchildren.”
He could tell she hated when his thoughts made sense. He could easily admit to letting her think him addle-brained, but the time for simply thinking was past. She wanted a man who could lead a pack and this was his time. He’d show her that Romeo Traverse had nothing on his cunning and tactical abilities, let alone his ability to lead and build a strong, worthy pack. The Delta wolves would join him or die; it was that simple.