Fated Legacy Complete Collection

Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

S kylar had been surprised at Travis’s defense of her actions and that he had backed her up with the chief. When the patrol officers showed up along with Lieutenant Hollings, they cordoned off the scene and set up lights to illuminate the darkness.

“Gautier. I should have known you’d be involved,” the lieutenant sneered.

She would be forever grateful that Travis remained quiet and stayed where he was, leaning against one of the tombs.

“You probably did know, but you either didn’t care if I got myself killed or, I suspect more likely, you figured I was on to something and decided to let me run with it. If it panned out, you knew I’d bring it to you. If not, I got an object lesson in not going through channels and you didn’t have to get your hands dirty.”

The lieutenant glowered at her and everyone around them went silent. Skylar didn’t back down from her confrontation with her boss.

Finally Hollings smiled. “Warren Kramer always said you were headstrong but would never jeopardize a case. He warned me that if you decided to see something through, you would. You were given a special award of merit for leadership and initiative. Nobody said it was because you organized your class of recruits into finding Warren’s killer, but we all know it was.”

“So, are we done posturing?”

“We are. Let’s get to work. Chief Malloy says you’ll be making a presentation to a small group that will be the start of the task force. I know he asked you for recommendations. I’d appreciate being copied on that email.”

“Happy to do it, Lieutenant.”

“Good enough. What do you know about this?”

“I was given an anonymous tip that something was either going down or had gone down in the cemetery. I probably should have pulled Betts and Fife in, but I didn’t know what I was going to find or how credible you might find the source. Travis agreed to leave them in the dark but was adamant that I not go alone. One of the advantages of being engaged to an ex-Delta Force operative.”

The lieutenant chuckled as she continued. “We slipped out a back entrance. When we got here, I figured Marie Laveau’s tomb was as good a place as any to start looking. Then we found poor Jenny. She’d been posed by the bastard.”

“You think the killer is trying to send you a message?”

Skylar nodded. “She looks enough like me to be my younger sister. He’s trashed my car and my apartment trying to figure out how much I know. He’s figured out that I’m on to him.”

“I think maybe we should take you and your fiancé to a safehouse.”

“Begging your pardon, sir,” said Fife. “I’ve seen their loft, and I don’t think there’s any place more secure than their building.”

“You all right with that, Nichols?” the lieutenant asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s it? Just ‘yes sir’? No chest thumping statements about keeping your woman safe?”

“In case you missed it, Lieutenant, Skylar is probably the most capable person here when it comes to taking care of herself.”

The lieutenant smiled. “You might well be right. You do know she graduated top of her class with exemplary marks for weapons and hand-to-hand combat?”

“Doesn’t surprise me. Her mother is hell on wheels and Sky is nothing if not the best combination of her mother and father.”

The lieutenant turned to Skylar. “Anything else to add at this time?”

“No, sir.”

“Tom, you need Gautier for anything else?”

“No. The less people around here, the better for my team,” called the chief of forensics.

“Gautier, you head back to your place. If you can, get those recommendations over to me and the chief tonight. Fife, Betts—you two follow them home and wait for your relief.”

The lieutenant stayed behind as the four of them—Betts, Fife, Travis and Skylar—walked to the entrance of the cemetery.

“We’ll be right behind you,” said Fife.

“Thanks,” said Skylar. “I’ll make sure the lieutenant knows it wasn’t your fault that we snuck out.”

“Appreciated, but I suspect he knows you well enough to know you aren’t going to be corralled if you don’t want to be. Ain’t that right, Nichols?”

“Nope. I have a lasso with her name on it. Just because you Louisiana boys can’t handle my fiery beauty doesn’t mean I can’t. We like ‘em feisty in Texas.”

Skylar rolled her eyes. “You just keep telling yourself that, Cowboy.”

They got to the scooter and Travis shook his head. “I think I’m buying us a better getaway vehicle. In retrospect, this thing is kind of silly.”

Skylar climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his strong back.

O nce they had stashed the scooter, they walked around to the front of the building and went inside while Betts and Fife did another perimeter sweep. Then they locked themselves back in.

“I don’t suppose there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that you’ll let me have a pass on the spanking tonight,” she said watching him drop the crossbar into place, barricading the front door of the loft.

“I thought about it, but no. There was no need for you to try and sneak out on me, and I think I was pretty clear about my expectations in that area. I’m willing to let you fire off that email to the chief and the lieutenant, but that’s as far as I’ll go.”

Travis was at war with himself. Part of him just wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right and beg her to walk away. But the other part, the stronger part, knew she needed to trust that her fated mate would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her and have her back. She also needed to know he would still hold her accountable. The corners of his mouth turned up.

“Do I even want to know what you’re thinking?”

“My father once told me a story about when they were closing in on DeMoncada. My mom had eluded my father’s grasp again. He confessed to your father that part of him was furious with her and wanted to take a belt to her backside, and the other part was insanely proud of her. Want to know what your dad said to him?” Skylar nodded. “He told my dad that the two feelings weren’t mutually exclusive.”

Skylar groaned. “Why couldn’t he have said something along the lines of ‘ignore the first and celebrate the latter’.”

“Because he knows that she-wolves like you and my mother need a mate who will have their backs and will also take them in hand. How long do you need?”

“Give me half an hour. I’ve been thinking about this, and already have a list of people for my dream task force.”

“Half an hour it is.”

When she sent the email and closed her laptop, she walked over to him. “My mother always said the best thing to do when you screw up is admit it. She said nothing you can say or do is going to get you out of being disciplined, but at least you can submit with your pride intact. You do know spanking me isn’t going to resolve everything between us.”

“There is nothing to resolve. I’m willing to give on a lot of things, but you staying safe and answering to me are not among them.”

“That’s not fair.”

“To who, you? I think it’s more than fair. I won’t discipline you unless I feel it’s in your best interest. I should follow my father as alpha, but I won’t. You wouldn’t be happy in Galveston. I know that. Once I figured it out, I started talking to Lincoln Steele. He’s an alpha without a pack of his own. He’s technically attached to his brother’s pack, but in many ways he’s in a similar position as me. You need to know, Skylar, that you’re worth it to me and both of my parents understand that.”

The first time he’d realized that Skylar came before anything else in his life, he’d waited for a feeling of fear or resentment, but it never came. It had felt like the one missing piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. Skylar was special. Everyone said so. Everyone said she was destined for great things. He believed it. He also believed his role in life was to be her mate and to fight whatever it was that wanted to take her from him and this earthly plane.

Skylar walked up to him, pulled his face down to hers and said, “I don’t know that I’m worth it, but I do know I’m awfully glad you think so.”

She pressed her lips against his and he didn’t want to think any more. He just wanted to feel. He realized he’d had his emotions on a tight leash since they’d gone to the cemetery. Now that they were safe and she was yielding, he could set them free. Travis growled as he pulled her into his arms and gloried as she molded her body to his.

He continued to kiss her as he backed toward the bed, where he sat down on the edge, bared her bottom, and stripped her shirt and bra off. Then he guided her to lay over his knee.

“Travis,” she moaned, not as a plea, but as submission to his will.

Travis knew it had been a long day for both of them, but it had also been a very long path for her to travel. He needed to discipline her for disobeying him, but he also needed her to let go of the tension that riddled her body so she could sleep for a few hours. He needed that too. He needed to reconnect with her in a fundamental way that kept her mindful of the dynamic in their relationship and that while he might back her, she would always be expected to answer to him.

He ran his hand over the round, smooth globes of her perfect ass, caressing them and savoring the feel of her soft, ivory skin—skin that would look so much better when he had tattooed it with his displeasure at her misconduct. He was already aroused, and his cock throbbed beneath her. The idea that tomorrow she would give an important presentation with some residual sting in her tail only intensified his response. He steadied her with one hand on the small of her back as he raised the other and brought it down on her ass in a hard strike that echoed in the cavernous loft.

“I’m sorry, Travis,” she moaned.

“Not as sorry as you’re going to be. It’s a count of thirty for putting yourself at risk and trying to sneak out. If there’s a next time, it’ll be forty.”

He began to spank her ass with a loving authority that began to color her pretty backside almost immediately. Unless he missed his guess, it had been a long time since anyone had taken Skylar to task for her misbehavior. He peppered her bottom with carefully placed and painful smacks. As he neared the thirtieth spank, he slowed, allowing his hand to linger each time it landed so it would hold in the heat.

The sweet smell of her arousal perfumed the air all around him. When he was done, he rubbed her heated buttocks soothingly, smiling as she parted her legs and rubbed her cheek against his leg. He eased his hand between her thighs and found the confirmation of what he’d already known. Skylar’s spanking had not only dissolved all of her tension, but it had also released her libido and his mate was primed and ready.

Travis stroked her labia, up to her clit and then back down to the opening of her core. When he curled his finger up inside her, she was slick with need and let out a moan in response. He slowly and gently used a single finger and then two to fuck her. She ground her clit against the throbbing beast trapped inside his jeans.

“God, Travis, please,” she gasped with labored breaths.

Continuing to stroke inside her with two fingers, he let his thumb find her swollen clit. He pressed down firmly, making her body stiffen as a gush of her arousal coated his fingers and her entire body shuddered in a small orgasm.

“Good mate,” he crooned. “I’m going to let you up and you’re to go stand in the corner.”

“Travis, please, can’t you just fuck me here in our bed?”

“Our bed, is it?”

“Yes, Sir. Please.”

“Hmm,” he said considering her request. “I suppose since you have asked me so nicely.” He helped her to her feet. “Up on the edge of the bed, hands and knees.”

S kylar scrambled to comply. Her ass hurt, but in a pleasantly erotic way. JD, her father’s beta, was known to have a wicked hand, but no spanking he’d ever given her had caused her to climax, which was probably the difference between discipline from your beta as opposed to your mate.

Travis rubbed her sore bottom and ran his finger down the cleft between her cheeks, stopping briefly to tap her dark rosette. He stepped between her legs, and she felt his erection probing between them, like a heat-seeking missile aimed at its target. He bent over her, leaning on one hand as the other came up to tweak her nipples. The first hard tug made her arms collapse, raising her ass higher toward him.

“Even better,” he growled, standing up. He ran his hand down her spine and pressed her face into the mattress.

With his other hand, he guided his cock into her pussy, shoving himself up to the hilt. Unexpectedly she called his name as a second orgasm snuck up and washed over her. She was fast becoming addicted to the drug that was Travis Nichols, her fated mate. He filled her up and there was a certain erotic pleasure as he began to pound into her, his pelvis slapping against her tender backside.

He drew back until she thought he might withdraw completely and not give her what she needed. She reached back with one hand, entreating him. He swatted her ass and pushed her hand away before grabbing her hips and pushing his entire length deep inside in a single hard press. She trembled. Travis didn’t just fuck her, he possessed her. He dominated, she submitted.

She wondered if she’d ever get used to him or take him for granted. As he pulled back and slammed into her again, he took her breath away. Any rational thoughts receded as she wanted only to please him, to capitulate to him, to surrender herself to his keeping. There was nothing else, only Travis as he hammered her pussy over and over.

He groaned and growled, pounding into her, holding her in place so that there could be no doubt in her mind as to who was doing the fucking and who was getting fucked. She didn’t care. Skylar knew the only thing she cared about was being with him. That he was willing to forge a different way from either of their parents meant everything to her.

Travis reached under her, playing with her clit, rubbing and tugging the swollen nub until she felt as though she would scream. He pressed it hard.

“Come for me, mate,” he whispered.

She relinquished any thought of control and gave him what he wanted. Skylar screamed into the pillow as he sent her flying, the orgasm crashing over her like a hurricane. Heat, arousal, and pleasure coursed through her veins, and she felt him give a last hard thrust as he held himself against her, flooding her with his cum, allowing its warmth to soothe her ravaged pussy.

He collapsed on top of her, forcing her down into the mattress as he lay atop her.

“Who do you belong to, mate?” he rumbled.

“You, my alpha, only you,” she said grasping his hands in hers and pulling them beneath her. She wanted to feel him all around her. In his arms and here with him she would always be safe.