The Council Ch. 04

Another groan escaped him but it was louder this time as his hips automatically flexed at her touch. She fisted his cock in her hand and gave him a few long, hard strokes. She wanted to hear more of his lusty sounds and he gave them up almost helplessly.

"Cedar." It was a husky, lust filled groan that sighed out of his lips as he turned around and reached for her. She laughed softly and evaded his grasp by dropping to her knees before him. Lord he had a beautiful body. His cock was hard and pulsing wildly, long and thick and so incredibly tasty looking. She darted forward and slipped her mouth over the pulsating flesh, feeling his thighs tremble as he growled loudly.

Her own moan accompanied his as she sucked on his cock with relish. He tasted so wonderful, hard and yet soft, tangy and oh so delicious. She attacked him with enthusiasm, using her tongue and even her teeth lightly against his throbbing shaft. His hand fisted in her wet hair as he bucked into her mouth in a slow, steady rhythm.

Alexei's heart was hammering so hard in his chest he thought he would start to hyperventilate. He didn't think vampire's could but it felt like he was going to. Cedar's wicked mouth was driving him crazy. She was slowly killing him in the most wonderful way imaginable. He forgot that he was annoyed with her; he forgot everything but the feel of her wet mouth sliding so erotically over his cock.

He hissed when she used her teeth against him, a light scraping up his length that threatened to send him crashing over the edge prematurely. She was very talented. He couldn't remember a time he'd enjoyed a woman's mouth on his body so much. If he wasn't careful he would be cumming before he got a chance to slide back inside her incredibly sexy body.

It took all his willpower to pull her mouth from his cock. He didn't want the exquisite pleasure to end but he also didn't want to lose this chance of riding between her legs either. He used the hand in her hair to drag her to her feet and pressed her hard against him as his mouth found hers unerringly and he kissed her feverishly. The woman was just so totally intoxicating she took his breath away.

Cedar gasped as Alexei reversed their positions, pushing her under the shower as he moved behind her.

"Put your hands on the wall," he commanded in a low voice which was thick with need.

He used his thick thigh to spread her legs apart as she complied with his instructions. His fingers slid along her slit in a slow tantalising movement, flicking at her clit briefly before moving back to her opening and diving inside to tease her mercilessly. He set up a torturous pace, keeping one hand on her lower back while his thick fingers fucked hard into her body.

She was moaning within seconds, pressing back against his hand as he stroked inside her tight tunnel, finding the sweet spot inside her and turning his assault to that area. Her breath rushed out in a loud gasp, her stomach tensing as he deftly pushed her into her climax with a handful of rubs deep within her.

Cedar cried out loudly as the waves of pleasure wracked her body as he continued to stroke inside her until her orgasm began to subside. He leaned down and kissed her shoulder, running his lips up to her ear where he laughed huskily.

"Very nice," he drawled softly. It was more than nice; it was fucking amazing to watch her cum just from the touch of his hands. She was so erotic, so stunningly beautiful in her passion. He slid his fingers from her body and sucked on them slowly. Her taste was simply divine. He couldn't stop himself from sampling her a little.

Alexei eased his body between her legs and rubbed his throbbing cock up and down her slit in light, teasing movements.

"Don't let go, Cedar," he breathed softly a second before he drove ruthlessly into her body. She cried out loudly, her cry echoing his own as her hot body welcomed his once again. She was perfect for him in every way. Her muscles gripped his thick shaft so beautifully, squeezing him tightly as he rode in to the hilt.

He paused for a second to fully enjoy the feel of her tight tunnel sheathing him, then he slowly withdrew and surged back inside. He took her hard and deep, his hands digging into the side of her hips to give him the leverage to ravage her body deeply. She responded with low, throaty sounds, pressing back to meet his invading cock with a desperate need.

He couldn't ever imagine getting tired of fucking her, of listening to her sweet sounds of ecstasy. His heated gaze travelled over her creamy white skin as they rocked together in an erotic dance of lust and passion. His need was building quickly as he watched the water splash against her soft skin and trickle down her sides.

He suddenly pulled out of her completely, turning her swiftly so he could press her back to the wall and slide deep within her once more. His hand fisted in her hair and brought her mouth to his as he raised her right leg and hooked it around the back of his. He thrust into her deeply, rubbing his chest against her swollen breasts, feeling her hard nipples digging into him

Cedar moaned into his mouth, grasping him tightly to her as his cock continued to ravish her with harder faster strokes. She wanted to bite him so badly. Her wolf was howling her need as she felt her climax begin to build swiftly. She ripped her mouth from his as he surged deep within her once more.

"Alexei," she whispered breathlessly, completely unaware of the desperation which was in her eyes as he stared into her face. "I need..." she trailed off as he thrust deep once more.

"Need what?" he growled softly, bringing his forehead to hers and slackening off his pace a little to give her a moment to catch her breath. "What do you need, little wolf?"

"You," she moaned as if she were in pain. "Alexei, I need you."

The breath hissed out of his lips as he understood what she was telling him. The wild look in her eyes said it all. He was looking into the frantic gaze of her wolf. The need she spoke of transcended the erotic joining of their bodies. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, such as small fraction she probably didn't even notice.

"Then take me, Cedar," he whispered hoarsely suddenly feeling as desperate as she was. He thrust into her hard, pulling her mouth to his neck, shuddering when her teeth scraped along his skin until she came to the spot that she craved so much. He had to maintain control. He had remember not to let his fangs elongate.

The tension in his body was twofold, his climax was imminent as was his little wolf's. Her body was shaking with her pleasure, a deep moan escaping her as he rode hard and fast into her beautiful body. The other tension, the other deep need within him was for what she was about to do.

Her sharp teeth pierced the join of his neck and shoulder.

He threw his head back and roared in ecstasy as his body exploded in the most intense climax he'd ever experienced. She was sucking at his neck hard, drinking down his pleasure laden blood as she shattered along with him, her cries muffled against his skin as he pumped his seed deep inside her body.

Alexei's thighs trembled hard and then his knees buckled completely and he was falling to the shower floor, his arms tightening around Cedar so she didn't get hurt. He cradled her tightly against him, their bodies still joined as tiny little aftershocks of pleasure rippled through them. She was no longer drinking from him, his wound already healed from her bite.

He trembled as he felt the difference within his body. Her wolf gene was racing through his bloodstream, causing God knows what changes to occur within him. Would the gene survive in his system or would his vampire genetics overwhelm it completely viewing it as a hostile foreign body trying to harm him?

He hoped for Cedar's sake that something managed to survive. The desperation in her eyes had told him just how important this was to her. He could most probably live without her mating ritual but he somehow didn't think she would find it so easy. He wondered if that was really accurate. The moment her desperation had translated to him he had been overcome with the same fierce need to have her bite him. He had wanted her to do it as much as she had needed to do it.

Alexei cradled his wolf close and closed his eyes. He had no idea what the hell he was doing anymore. He just wanted to be with the woman in his arms, to lose himself in her sexy body, to fight with her as they sought to dominate each other, to see her beautiful face glow with a radiant smile when he pleased her. For the first time in his life, his actions were no longer centred around himself and his brother. Cedar Alexander was firmly entwined in his life and he knew he was never going to be the same again.

Cedar's wolf growled her pleasure at having bitten their mate. Her face was still buried in the side of his neck and she could feel the smooth skin where she had bitten him. The bite had healed instantly. She could only pray that the wolf gene would prove more resilient to his healing abilities, that the connection would and could be made. Her wolf seemed to think it had but she wasn't so sure. Only time would tell if she had succeeded in doing her part of the mating ritual. How he was going to manage his was a whole other matter.

*****

Andrei snorted in irritation as he tried his brother's cell phone again and it went straight to voicemail. He didn't leave a message. He hadn't seen Alexei in almost a week and had barely spoken to him either. It was almost as if he was trying to hide from him.

The out of character behaviour was starting to ring warning bells in Andrei's mind. Something wasn't right, he could sense it. Normally if they had been apart for so long, they were inseparable once they got back together. Where the fuck was he? He'd said he'd come back early to be there for the Council ceremony but it didn't look like he was going to show up at all.

"Nervous?" Alexei laughed from behind him and he spun around to glare at his errant brother who didn't appear the least bit bothered by the irate look he was getting.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Andrei demanded. "You've been impossible to get a hold of ever since you got back."

Alexei's grin widened and his eyes flashed with something Andrei couldn't quite make out. His brother appeared to be in a very good mood. No, it was more than that. Alexei actually looked content? His irritation increased tenfold.

"Calm down, Andrei," Alexei sighed with another little laugh. "You said yourself this is just a formality. I don't know why you're so tense about it."

He was watching his brother carefully, looking for any sign that he would scent anything different about him. If Andrei could scent the wolf gene within him then he wouldn't be able to go to the Council ceremony. It was something he hadn't thought of when he'd accepted Cedar's mating bite. He knew he should have tested this out a lot earlier but he hadn't wanted to be too far apart from his wolf in the last week. Given a choice of spending time with his brother or spending endless hours getting to know his woman, Cedar won hands down, even though he could cheerfully choke her most of the time.

Andrei glowered at him a moment longer and then sighed deeply and rolled his shoulders to try and relieve a little of the tension inside him. "I'm not tense because of the stupid ceremony," he grumbled. "I've been on edge all week. Something just doesn't feel right and not being able to get hold of you hasn't helped matters. Where have you been, Alexei?"

"Playing," his brother smiled widely. "With a delectable little blonde, though little is probably the wrong word to use, she's almost as tall as I am. Still, she's been very entertaining." There was a glint in his eyes as he spoke, a flash of excitement which told his brother that he was particularly enamoured with the new woman in his life.

Andrei rolled his eyes. That explained the look of contentment on Alexei's face. At least one of them was getting some sex. He hadn't been with a woman since Loretta and his sexual frustration was only compounding his feeling of anxiety. The moment he thought of the little brunette he felt his body starting to react and he bit back a curse and tried to think of something else.

Every time he thought of her he got the same reaction. It was irritating as hell that he reacted to her like that. It wasn't as if he was actually seeing her or anything. It had been a one off encounter, one he would have been happy to repeat but she hadn't returned or called so obviously she had other thoughts on the matter.

Andrei could feel his irritation starting to rise again and took a deep breath to dampen it down. He had a ceremony to get through and needed to be calm for that instead of getting annoyed because his brother was getting laid and he wasn't. If he really wanted a woman he just needed to reach out and take whatever tasty little morsel was hanging around waiting for his attentions. The fact that he was waiting for a particular tasty little morsel was his own stupidity.

"Come on, Andrei. What's got you so tense?" Alexei asked. "It's not like you to be this riled up."

Andrei sighed and pointed to two vampires who were approaching the building they were standing outside of. "My main adversaries," he said quietly. "The one on the left is Daniel. He's the biggest threat to my power."

Alexei hadn't seen either of the two before so he scrutinised them carefully so he could remember them. The one called Daniel was tall and lean and tended to dress in a style the harked back to the eighteen hundreds. He was full of little affectations from his frilly cuffs and velvet jacket to the way he wore his long black hair in a thick plait down his back that hung almost to his waist.

Alexei thought he looked like a pompous fool and couldn't help laughing. "You're sure he's your biggest threat? He's actually got time to do anything other than wash and dry his hair and then plait it so perfectly each day? What an ass!"

His mocking tone had his brother's mouth tilting up in a small smile. "There are some people who think I'm a nice, friendly vampire too," he reminded Alexei. "Appearances can be very deceiving. He's as much of a shark as Richard Graves ever was. He just hides it better. The other vampire with him is his sidekick, Roberto."

The other vampire looked pretty boring compared to his companion. Just another Elder with muddy brown hair and grey eyes. Alexei knew sidekicks needed to watched carefully. They had a lot to prove as Caleb and Demetri had found out to their grief last year when Graves' sidekick Sandro had almost killed their women. He filed Roberto away in his mind to check up on him later.

Another vampire was approaching and Andrei was suddenly very alert as he watched him. "That's Cristoph," he murmured quietly to his brother. "He is currently aligned with me at the moment but he requires certain incentives. He particularly favours obscure, one of a kind pieces of art but will accept shares in some of the companies I own."

Alexei scrutinised the vampire. He wore his hair shortish for one of their kind, his brown locks barely reaching his shoulders. He had a keen, intelligent expression in his green eyes. He nodded to Andrei as he made his way inside the building. Alexei didn't trust anyone who could be bought. There was always someone else who would be willing to pay that little bit more. He wondered idly if there was anything he could do to make Cristoph's loyalty a little more permanent.

"Andrei, Alexei," a voice called and Alexei's eyes turned to see Stephan approaching them, his hazel eyes full of pleasure, his wavy black hair blowing lightly in the breeze. He smiled automatically. Now this vampire he knew. He had been a friend of theirs for centuries now, someone you could trust to be loyal. The twins greeted him warmly.

"Why are you standing outside?" Stephan asked. "It won't be long until the ceremony starts."

"Alexei was running late and then I decided to give him an introduction to the Council as they arrived," Andrei answered was a small smile tugging at his lips. Stephan was his strongest ally on the Council. The one person he didn't have to watch his back from.

Stephan laughed. "And what did you think of our illustrious members, Alexei?"

The snort Alexei gave summed up his feelings on the matter.

"Now, now, Alexei, this is your Council you're snorting at. Who just so happen to be your new bosses. How does it feel having to take orders from this psychopath?" he smiled pointing at Andrei.

Stephan laughed at the mock outrage on both their faces. "I'm going to head inside. See you in there." He turned and hurried inside.

"I think Stephan is excited about being on the Council," Alexei chuckled lightly.

"Just a bit," Andrei smirked watching his friend disappear into the building. He felt a little better now that Alexei had been able to get a good look at the other Council members. He knew his brother would always have his back. Now Alexei knew who to start paying special attention to, he could relax a bit more. His anxiety levels were still elevated but not as bad as they had been.

"Come on, let's get inside," he said with a sigh. "The ceremony is due to start soon."

Alexei hesitated a second. "Andrei, do I smell alright?"

An expression of complete incredulity crossed Andrei's face as he turned back to look at his brother. "Smell alright? You want me to sniff you? Alexei, are you feeling okay because you're sounding like a raving lunatic at the moment."

His brother's face had hardened but there was something in his eyes which caused a little frisson of fear to go through Andrei. What the fuck was wrong with Alexei? Why was he acting so strangely? He took a deep breath, scenting his brother deeply. He smelled exactly the same as he always did. He didn't know what his issue was. Why he was suddenly concerned about the way he smelled?

He was about to open his mouth and make another scathing remark when he detected something so subtle that for a moment he thought he had imagined it but then he scented it again. It was weak, masked almost completely by his usual scent but it was there. Andrei doubted anyone else would be able to pick it up. It was only the close bond they had together, the fact that they were so in tune with each other that allowed him to detect the foreign scent.

His eyes hardened as he stared at his brother. He knew that scent. It was unmistakable. "We will talk about this later," he said in a cold tone. "For now, rest assured that no one else will be able to detect it. I almost missed it myself it's so faint. I would never have noticed it at all if you hadn't alerted me to the fact that something was out of the ordinary."

Alexei noticeably relaxed, relieved that the wolf gene wouldn't be picked up by any of his people. It would have been a bit hard to explain and Lord only knew what an uproar it would have caused in the Council chambers. He could see the anger burning in his brother's eyes and knew he was going to be on the receiving end of one of Andrei's legendary temper tantrums.

But he didn't care. He had the confirmation he had been looking for all week. He could let Cedar know that the wolf gene had been accepted by his body. That would make her happy which by default would make him happy. He found himself practically humming with pleasure whenever his wolf was smiling at him.

Andrei hissed loudly. "Get inside, Alexei. Remember who and what you are." He didn't like the soft expression on his brother's face. It wasn't normal. It wasn't Alexei.

Who the fuck had he let bite him and what the hell was the wolf gene doing to his brother? He couldn't believe Alexei was putting him in this position again. He was a Council member, about to officially take up his role on their ruling body and his twin had gone and let a wolf infect him? This was worse than last year. His fuck up last year was containable but how the hell did Andrei contain this one? How the hell was he going to protect Alexei when it came out that he was tying himself to a bloody dog?!